On April 30, 2013, EAGLE-Net Alliance (EAGLE-Net) announced that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has lifted the suspension of award for its $100.6 million Broadband Technology and Opportunities Program (BTOP) infrastructure grant.  With this announcement, EAGLE-Net will resume work on its statewide broadband infrastructure project.

 

"The hard work is ahead of us," said Mike Ryan, President of EAGLE-Net Alliance.  "As the new president, I am committed to EAGLE-Net's mission of connecting school districts to a statewide education network, while working in partnership with existing service providers."

 

Now that the suspension has been lifted, EAGLE-Net will implement a plan that focuses immediately on 29 school districts west of I-25, including Silverton.  EAGLE-Net plans to complete the majority of this construction by August 2013 and request an extension of its BTOP project to 2014.  At the end of this phase, over 50% of the 190 combined school districts (178) and  Board of Cooperative Educational Services (12) in Colorado will be on-net to the EAGLE-Net network.  Ultimately, EAGLE-Net hopes to enable all of the school districts to access a shared education network.

 

EAGLE-Net's 36 current school district customers were not affected by this suspension and have continued to receive service without interruptions during this suspension period.  New customers who awarded EAGLE-Net contracts through the recent 2013-2014 E-Rate bidding period will be contacted soon as to next steps.

 

"Since we began to use their services in 2013, we have experienced many benefits in using their services including faster Internet speeds along with more reliable and steady connection," said Todd Cordrey, Rangely RE4 School District Superintendent.

 

On December 6, 2012, the United States Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Grants Office which oversees the funding for EAGLE-Net Alliance's BTOP grant issued a suspension of award that created an immediate work stoppage.  Since then, EAGLE-Net has been working with the NTIA to meet all the requirements to get off suspension and back to implementing the infrastructure grant.

 

More details regarding the next steps and build delivery schedules will be released soon on the EAGLE-Net website.

 

On April 29, 2013, the NTIA and EAGLE-Net announced an updated build schedule for the BTOP grant project.  All the locations will be completed in 2013.  The only exception is Silverton* which begins construction in 2013 and will be completed in 2014. 

EAGLE-Net continues to work with partners and vendors to complete the BTOP grant project.  The most recent request is: