Telecom: Broadband Adoption

State & Local Broadband Best Practices Survey

1. ID (System Generated): 46439

2. Project Name (System Generated): KS Kan-ed

3. State: KS

4. Title of project or program: Kan-ed

5. Identify the type of organization that administers this project:

   1. Government Agency

   2. Other:

6. What is the project’s geographic coverage area? Statewide

7. Is the purpose of the project to construct broadband infrastructure in/to:

   1. Unserved Areas

   2. Underserved Areas

   3. Community Anchor Institutions

   4. Improve Health Care Delivery

   5. Improve Education

8. Is the purpose of the project to promote broadband use by:

9. What technologies are used by the project?

   1. Fiber Optic

   2. Copper Cable

   3. Wireless-Wi-Fi

   4. Other technology:

10. If the project involves utilizing noteworthy hardware or software products, please identify the major vendors and/or partners for the project:Cisco, Juniper, Polycom, LifeSize, Tandberg, Codian, Renovo,

11. Did the project involve building infrastructure that produced a new or faster broadband service? Not_Applicable

    1. What is the rated or marketed speed of the fastest new or updated broadband service offered to:

       Business consumers? mbps

       Residential consumers? mbps

    2. Are these “peak” speeds or “average” speeds?

    3. Are these speeds “symmetrical?” (users can simultaneously upload and download at this speed):

12. What consumers are served by the infrastructure project:

    1. Rural or Low-Density Areas

    2. Schools or Distance Learning

    3. Colleges & Universities

    4. Public Libraries

    5. Public Spaces & Government Buildings

    6. Hospitals & Medical Facilities

    7. Other:

13. If the purpose of the project is to stimulate demand for broadband services, please indicate how it achieved this goal:

    1. Education & Training

    2. Application Development

    3. Other method: Kan-ed offered grant programs to target resources in support of purchase, installation, and use of class based endpoint solutions.

14. If the purpose of the project is to improve affordability of broadband services, please indicate how it achieves this goal:

    1. Service Subsidies

    2. Equipment Subsidies

    3. Other method:

15. If the purpose of the project is to promote the availability of broadband services in rural areas, please indicate how it achieves this goal:

    1. Distance Learning

    2. Telehealth & Telemedicine

    3. Other:

16. Please provide detailed project description including time sequence for the project's implementation: Kan-ed is a program created by the Kansas Legislature in 2001, design and planning coordination took place in 2002, and in 2003 project staff were hired to implement and administer the Kan-ed program under the organizational auspices of the Kansas Board of Regents. The purpose of the program is to expand the collaboration capabilities of community anchor institutions (schools, libraries and hospitals) in the public sector by providing a network that Kan-ed members can use to access the Internet and connect to a private intranet for distance learning and advanced technologies and services. The enabling legislation defines eligibility for membership in Kan-ed as: K-12 school districts, higher education institutions, libraries, and hospitals. A total of 893 public institutions in Kansas are permitted by K.S.A. 75-2221et seq., to connect to the statewide broadband network known as Kan-ed. Kan-ed member institutions make use of this advanced network for high throughput, interactive applications, and access to remote technologies that support collaborative learning. Kan-ed has established agreements for standards based interconnections with over 30 local telecommunications service providers to move schools, libraries, and hospitals up to a minimum T-1 (1.54 Mbps) broadband connection. Kan-ed has annually sought and secured a $10M budget appropriation from the Kansas Universal Service Fund and directed the use of these resources to assure adequate bandwidth provisioning, to deploy core network infrastructure elements, to extend the edge network closer to member institutions and to the service providers they choose, to grant funds for local area network enhancements within the member premise, to connect videoconferencing equipment and support video services, to coordinate the management of network operations center (NOC) services, to engage engineering and technical consulting services for the network, and for access to both commercial and user created content and services.

17. Identify the project funding sources:

    1. State or Local Tax Funds

    2. State Universal Service Money

    3. Other Federal Sources

    4. Other:

18. What is the project cost?

    1. Total capital expenditures to date:

       $ millions as of [fiscal/calendar] year 20

    2. Annual program operating budget (estimated if not yet fully operational):

       $ 10 millions as of [fiscal/calendar] year 2009

19. What impediments or problems were encountered in completing the project or program? rapid technology life cycles and the need to refresh / upgrade legacy systems; end user group experience and knowledge base; lack of availability of technicians with requisite qualifications

20. What actions were taken to resolve or minimize project or program impediments and problems? using grants and incentive programs for supply side and demand side, grant programs supporting equipment and technology needed in the LAN to make use of advanced network services, development of peering standards, training, education, and outreach to user groups.

21. What other lessons were learned during the process of undertaking and completing this project or program? Public - Private partnership essential, incentivize innovation in the user groups.

22. Project or program website link: http://www.kan-ed.org

23. For further information contact:

    1. Name: Randy Stout

    2. Title:

    3. Organization: Kansas Board of Regents, Kan-ed

    4. Telephone Number: 785.296.7033

    5. E-Mail Address: rstout@ksbor.org