EAGLE-Net Community Outreach Update

Community Outreach Update

November 2012

CEO Message

Randy Zila
CEO

With Thanksgiving soon upon us, and as we start to wrap up our first construction season, we have much to be thankful for.

The EAGLE-Net project has created over 200 new jobs, including our full-time employees and more than 170 construction contractors. We have service available to more than 55 of the 234 community anchor institutions listed in the grant award. We have leased over 1,600 miles of dark fiber and are in the process of installing nearly 1,100 miles of new fiber optic cable across Colorado.

All of this hard work is paying off and entities across the state are taking notice. Over the past several weeks, we have received nearly 30 letters of support from a variety of education, government and business organizations. We are grateful that they all took time to articulate how EAGLE-Net is or will make a difference to their organization and community.

We look forward to serving these entities and many others in the future as we complete our statewide network in 2013.

From all of us at EAGLE-Net, Happy Thanksgiving!

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EAGLE-Net Garners Widespread Support

We are pleased to share a recent editorial from the Fort Morgan Times and two of the many support letters we have received - all of which highlight the importance of our mission of providing access to high speed broadband/data to communities across Colorado.

Titled "Give Rural Areas Their Broadband," the Fort Morgan Times' editorial is a result of some erroneous information disseminated in the past few weeks about EAGLE-Net.

The Times' editorial states that an important part of our mission is to strengthen and extend broadband access in rural areas throughout the state, especially for schools and government institutions. We certainly appreciate the Times' support.

We also received a letter from Robert Hammond, Commissioner of Education for the Colorado Department of Education, stating "We strongly believe (EAGLE-Net's) work will have a positive impact on quality of life, increased access to educational support, and student achievement across Colorado." His letter goes on to say, "Having a redundant network is not a luxury, it is necessary to ensure network reliability. Especially given the increasing data demands on our schools and districts across the state."

The statewide Colorado BOCES Association (CBA) also added their support. There are 169 school districts (out of the total of 178 in Colorado) which make up statewide BOCES association and the nineteen regional (19) BOCES throughout Colorado.

Executive Director Dale McCall captured the importance of our project when he wrote EAGLE-Net will "...provide a much needed service and reduce the digital divide between rural, suburban and urban communities and benefits all students in the Colorado K-12 education system."

Finally, we have received a variety of letters from other educational, business and governmental entities. We post all letters on our website and provide updated information on our construction progress .

Stay tuned...additional information and other highlights will be forthcoming in the weeks and months ahead. In the meantime, we remain dedicated to completing the construction of the EAGLE-Net network by August 2013.

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Progress Report

In addition to the 1900 miles of leased and upgraded network miles, we currently have awarded 1,007 network miles of construction and installation work. Presently, we have 39 construction crews working in the fields. This year's work is winding down in the four main areas of the state: the Northeast, Front Range, San Luis Valley and the Western slope. To date, over 670 miles of conduit has been placed in the ground with more than 470 miles of fiber optic cable currently installed. Our network core is active and carrying customer traffic!

Stay tuned to the EAGLE-Net website for current construction updates.

Did you Know?

Fusion splicing is the act of joining two optical fibers together end to end. This process is accomplished with a source of heat that melts the fibers into one- in such a way, that when light passes through the fibers it is not scattered or reflected back and is as close to the original fiber as possible.

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Stories from the Road

Interest in EAGLE-Net continues to grow as the Regional Community Representatives make their way around the state speaking with local stakeholders at the state, regional, and municipal levels. These talented individuals are conveniently located across the state to ensure that everyone has access to information and services at EAGLE-Net Alliance.

Starting off the month of October, representatives met with Routt, Moffat, Jackson, and Grand counties at the Steamboat Springs Regional Meeting to discuss issues pertaining to available broadband services, build concerns, and local community needs. A similar meeting was held in the Upper Ark Region with Lake, Chaffee, Fremont and Custer Counties. Both meetings successfully brought together several local counties to ensure that broadband needs are being met and to foster a productive dialogue concerning EAGLE-Net's infrastructure build in the area.

In other areas of the state, EAGLE-Net representatives have been meeting with city, county and K-20 education officials. Regional Community Representatives met with stakeholders in the Town of Montezuma, Town of New Castle, Garfield County Public Library, Colorado Mountain College, Steamboat Springs School District, Garfield RE-2 School District, South Routt School District RE-3, Routt County, City of Aurora, and the City of Lakewood. The primary goal of each of the meetings listed above is to educate Colorado constituents on the benefits of connecting to EAGLE-Net Alliance.

The Regional Community Representatives will continue to meet with community stakeholders across the state. If you are interested in meeting with a representative or would like to learn more about how EAGLE-Net Alliance will serve your community, please visit our website to find contact information for your local RCR.

EAGLE-Net Business Development team:

Chip White, Executive V.P. of Business Development

Doug Kissler, Director of Business Systems and Healthcare Vertical

Dr. Neil Schaal, Director of K-20 Education Vertical

RCR Map

Andrew Wright, Director of Government Vertical and Value Added Member Services

EAGLE-Net Regional Community Representatives:

Phil Cortese, Central Urban Corridor Colorado

Allison Cortner, Mountain Central Colorado

Dave Kavanagh, Northwest/ Northern Colorado

Darlene Scott, Eastern Colorado

Pat Swonger, Southwest/ West Central Colorado

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Meet Our Staff

Scott Adair

Network Engineer

Scott Adair's responsibilities at EAGLE-Net include day to day monitoring and support of the EAGLE-Net network and connecting community anchor institutions and member school districts to EAGLE-Net as their grant supported transport builds are completed. Scott joined the EAGLE-Net team in April of 2011. He has a Bachelor of Science from Texas A&M University, and has over 9 years experience in the ISP industry.

Scot Colbrun

Scot Colburn

Network Engineer

Scot Colburn reviews existing and proposed network configurations and plans for accuracy, feasibility, reliability and scalability. He builds Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) configurations to allow EAGLE-Net routers to efficiently move internet traffic. He works with EAGLE-Net's Solarwinds network management server to gather and present Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) data from company devices and to backup the configurations of all the network devices. Previously, Scot worked for NCAR (FRGP), NOAA, CSU-Pueblo, and spent two seasons on "the ice" at McMurdo Station with Antarctic Support Associates.

Jeremy Shaw

Jeremy Shaw

Network Engineer

Jeremy Shaw is responsible for supporting EAGLE-Net's "legacy network and services" in parallel to supporting and installing the "next generation MPLS network" that will make up EAGLE-Net Alliance's network infrastructure. He also works on various background projects covering future maintenance, future network requirements and technologies, DNS solutions, IPAM solutions, standardization projects, circuit engineering based on needs, and much more. His professional experience in the telecommunications world began as technical support for business level customers serviced through HFC-infrastructures; later supporting higher levels of service, which then led to provisioning in SONET technologies to supporting Metro Ethernet styled services.

Larry Song

Larry Song

Optical Engineer

Larry Song is responsible for work on the design, implementation and maintenance of EAGLE-Net's DWDM fiber optic network. He works internally with the network, outside plant and engineering groups, as well as outside contractors to ensure the equipment facilities, installations, turn ups and software testing is completed on time and on schedule. Outside of work he likes to camp, off road and volunteer in community based projects.

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Congratulations Dan Kettle!

We all at EAGLE-Net wish Dan Kettle a happy and healthy retirement. Dan has worked on the EAGLE-Net network for many years as the lead network engineer. During that time, he led the effort to transition the EAGLE-Net network from a regional network serving the Centennial BOCES to a statewide network serving the entire State of Colorado. He headed up the network design effort to implement a state of the art IP and Optical network servicing 4,000 miles of network infrastructure and has implemented the network design that will bring an unprecedented level of bandwidth to Colorado's K-12 school districts and other educational and governmental entities.

Dan Kettle exemplifies the professionalism, dedication, and commitment that is a core part of the EAGLE-Net mission to bring the statewide network to life. In gratitude for his years of work, the executive staff at EAGLE-Net Alliance has renamed the regeneration site, previously known as the Gun Club Regen Site, to the Dan Kettle Regen Site.

Congratulations on your retirement!

EAGLE-Net Staff

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EAGLE-Net in the News!

Take a look at the news coverage and other mentions that EAGLE-Net has received over the past month: