USAC, ISBE officially approve CCSD21’s WANRack private fiber project

September 4, 2024

Topic: Updates

The Universal Service Administrative Company and the Illinois State Board of Education this month officially approved a project by Community Consolidated School District 21 and WANRack for a private fiber wide area network solution and services.

The project, which the Board of Education approved in February, would see the construction of a new fully underground, private fiber lit ring network that will provide the district with an extremely resilient and secure fiber network. In the event of a fiber cut or damage, its design ensures that no more than one school would be affected. Fully diverse and redundant fiber paths create maximum uptime and performance for students and staff.

USAC’s funding commitment of approximately $3.64 million, along with the ISBE matching grant for $182,000, means the district will have a $0 out-of-pocket cost for the project.

“I think this is big for [the district],” said Mike Frantini, Chief Technology Officer. “To have our own private fiber dedicated to use will definitely increase the performance, reliability, security and redundancy of all of our services in general, so getting that done – and to have it done at $0 out of pocket is a really great deal for the district.”

The solution would also significantly cut the monthly service cost the district is currently paying with AT&T for WAN services. Monthly service payments are expected to drop from $18,000 a month with AT&T to $7,500 a month with WANRank, which includes the ability to increase network speeds as technology improves, with no change to the monthly cost.

The project is progressing on schedule, and is expected to be completed by the summer of 2025.