Re: Week Four Assignments

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Betty:

You're dead correct.  Establishing datacomm connections is not for
beginners.  Our county solved the problem by hiring a technology
coordinator, me, to server all the small districts that can't afford the
expertise.  Now they only have to pay for me when they need me.

Having solved that problems still leaves us up against the bigger one.  The
cost of adequate bandwidth is too high.  In some cases, even if the school
could afford the digital data line, PacBell can't provide it.  Pacific Bell
has a program where they will provide one free year of 128k ISDN service and
free installation to a school.  That looks like a good deal on the surface.
However, we've run into several problems, problems that several of our
schools have avoided because the county had a tech person to advise them,
and that tech person has the experience/scars to know that the ISDN deal was
not with out traps.

#1 - ISDN is cheap and fast if the two locations being connected are served
by the same phone company switch.  If there are multiple switches involved
you have to pay packet charges once your free year of service is up, and
those charges will eat you alive.

#2 - ISDN is not reliable in our area.  It goes up and down, which makes my
life miserable.

#3 - At least one of our school districts, Browns, can't get ISDN.  They're
too far away from the nearest phone company switch, and the wire servicing
them is too small.  The phone company is not required to upgrade that wire,
and since the cost to do so is in excess of $100,000.00 the phone company
has declined to do so.  They'd never recoup their investment.

This leads to the heart of the discussion.

The legislation must mandate that a minimum level of data comm service be
provided regardless of geographic location.

That service must be at a cost that is affordable for all school districts
regardless of their size or financial condition.

Competition must be allowed as this will tend to creat more and better
services at lower cost.
Kevin Conde
Technology Coordinator
Sutter County Superintendent of Schools Office
916-741-5115, x103

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• Maybe in reply to: Kevin Conde: "Week Four Assignments"