Yipes Delivers Light-Speed Optical IP Network to Colorado School District

Business Wire, May 15, 2000

Business Editors, High Tech Writers

SAN FRANCISCO and LONGMONT, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 15, 2000

Yipes' gigabit network will give St. Vrain Valley School District

access to pioneering new multi-campus educational applications

Yipes Communications, Inc., the defining provider of optical IP networks, and the St. Vrain Valley School District today announced that Yipes will connect 24 school facilities to its gigabit data network in Longmont, Colorado, relieving the district's bandwidth crunch and opening the door to exciting new educational opportunities.

Yipes' managed service will give the district two-and-a-half times its current data communications capacity--and give it nearly unlimited room for future growth--while costing no more than current services. Besides "lighting up" classrooms, Yipes will put schools in instant communication with district offices that provide data processing for such key functions as financial services, personnel administration, student grades, attendance records and purchase orders.

The new Yipes network should become operational this summer, in time to serve students, teachers and administrators when schools open in September.

"Bandwidth restrictions have become a real problem for us because of growing student and teacher use of the Internet, the building of new schools and increasing numbers of computers online," said Randy Donahoo, Supervisor of Information Technology at the district. "Yipes solves that problem and saves us money with its uniquely flexible service. As a result, we can pursue innovative new programs for distance learning, multimedia projects, computer-based technology labs and professional development for teachers."

"It's often said that the classroom hasn't changed over the last 30 years as much as the workplace," said Ron Young, Co-Founder and Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at Yipes. "By utilizing the power of Yipes' optical IP network, the classrooms of the St. Vrain Valley School District can have access to powerful new Internet applications that better prepare students to become knowledge workers in the 21st century."

"Many school districts are getting wired for basic Internet service these days," said Paul Kordis, a noted author and consultant on strategies for succeeding in business in the future. "But the St. Vrain Valley School District has a more strategic vision for enlisting technology in the service of education. By hooking up to Yipes' gigabit optical network, students, educators and administrators will become connected in surprising new ways, laying the foundation for a surge of creativity, productivity and knowledge. They could set a new standard for American schools in the digital age and beyond."

Yipes is widely recognized as the first national provider of fully scalable bandwidth-on-demand for business applications. Yipes' optical IP networks deliver an unmatched combination of speed, simplicity and flexibility, using the pervasive and familiar Ethernet interface. Customers may select LAN-to-LAN service between business locations or high-speed Internet services, both scalable from 1 Mbps to 1 Gbps in 1 Mbps increments. With true bandwidth-on-demand, Yipes customers pay only for what they need.

Yipes has announced operations in Boston, Chicago and suburban San Francisco, Los Angeles and Denver. Yipes plans to have a national footprint by the end of this year, with services available in most major cities coast to coast.

The St. Vrain Valley School District covers more than 400 square miles, extending from the Continental Divide to the agricultural plains east of the Rockies. It serves 11 different communities, of which the largest is the City of Longmont. The fast-growing district currently has 33 school campuses.

Donahoo said the district's current network delivers Internet access to classrooms, e-mail and business communications over a hodgepodge of copper T1 lines leased from a major telecommunications provider. With its bandwidth constraints lifted by Yipes' optical IP network, the district can enhance educational productivity through the use of videoconferencing, distance learning, and multimedia applications such as sharing videos and digital photography projects between classrooms.

"We are also looking at setting up tutorial videos online," Donahoo said. Elementary school teachers currently get science activity guides and curriculum ideas from a district-wide Science-To-Go Center. With video tutorials delivered directly to the classroom over the school's new network, "teachers could see a demonstration of how an incubator ought to be put together," Donahoo explained.

Until now the district has discouraged such applications "because they would bog down our network," he added.

The district was reluctant to order more bandwidth from traditional telecommunications carriers. Additional T1 lines would cost more than the district could afford. They would require buying and installing more equipment on school grounds, taking up valuable space and even more valuable management time on the part of IT specialists. Worse yet, traditional solutions could take months to provision.