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Company | Customer References

Bangor Area School District

Building a new network to expand Wi-Fi coverage across the district for students and teachers while making it is easier for IT staff to manage.

  • Country: United States Of America
  • Industry: Education
  • Solution: Data Center, WiFi Solutions

Bangor Area School District in Eastern Pennsylvania set out to move away from old token ring technology and build a modern network for its 3300+ users. It also included building a full-coverage wireless network for teachers and students. As the district explored options, it discovered Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise switches and wireless access points delivered the most advanced technology at the lowest bid.

Bangor Area School District customer logo
The Stellar WLAN is easier to work with and has overall better performance than our previous WLAN APs. The overall network is a solid solution and easier to manage. It just works!
Timothy Curran, Director of Technology, Bangor Area School District

Challenges

Bangor Area School District’s network needed to be updated to meet the needs of modern teaching and learning methods, including high bandwidth low latency performance. With a switch in each classroom, network support placed an unreasonable burden on a limited IT staff of three. In addition, the district wanted to offer a robust wireless network for students, teachers and staff to keep up with the use of wireless devices. Ultimately, the district wanted to address the “always on” expectations of the network for its users.

Action

With the help of business partner Dice Communications, Bangor updated its fiber and added Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch® Ethernet switch solutions for Five Points Elementary School, which allowed for remote management. They then added OmniAccess® Stellar Wireless Access Points at Five Points and discovered better performance and network management. The next project was expanding the Wi-Fi reach to the other elementary, middle and high schools for more coverage. The new Stellar wireless network delivered coverage, density and an overall clear graphical interface for management.

Results

Technical benefits

  • Stellar APs offer reliable connectivity and complete coverage
  • Experience with OmniSwitch upgrades proved simpler than previous switch vendor
  • OmniVista 2500 Network Management wireless heat mapping capability found dead spots and helped rebalance the network based on use

Financial benefits

  • Savings from efficient network switch design used to purchase keyless door lock system
  • Low cost/high value return from ALE training
  • Secured long term investment and overcame budget constraints with eRate funding

User experience benefits

  • Easy connectivity for teacher’s laptops, learning devices and projectors to WLAN
  • New eSports program is successfully supported via reliable network
  • IT projects go unnoticed as users turn devices on and they connect without issue
  • Wireless delivers better overall user experience
  • Business Partner Dice Communications answers all calls and requests, demonstrating the true value in a partner

Products & Solutions

Products

WHAT’S NEXT FOR BANGOR SCHOOLS?

Bangor is exploring exterior Wi-Fi access points via a grant to open access and connect first responders to the student notification and outside buildings. It will enable use of the “Navigate Prepared” app in the event of an emergency.

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