American Distance Education Consortium Awarded $4 Million NSF Grant for Satellite Internet With Tachyon

Business Wire, Oct 9, 2000

Business Editors/Hi-Tech Writers

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 9, 2000

National Science Foundation Funds Project To Bridge

Digital Divide In American Education

The American Distance Education Consortium (ADEC) and Tachyon, Inc., the San Diego-based provider of high performance Internet and network access via two way satellite, will together bring advanced Internet applications to rural and low income American learning centers.

Backed by a National Science Foundation grant totaling nearly $4.04 million, the Advanced Internet Satellite Extension Project will assess Tachyon's satellite access service and its ability to quickly and easily tailor bandwidth for a variety of learning applications. Tachyon's ubiquitous network extends these applications to areas under-served by terrestrial infrastructure - areas on the wrong side of the so-called 'Digital Divide'.

The project will also investigate issues surrounding the delivery to rural learning centers, colleges and universities of applications developed in the Internet 2 project. Tribal colleges, historically black colleges and universities and Hispanic-serving institutions stand to derive particular benefit from the project as they are often the least well served by T1 leased lines, cable modems and DSL services.

In contrast to single user, consumer services, Tachyon delivers enterprise grade, two way access to public and private Internet Protocol networks with advanced Quality of Service (QoS) mechanisms, 24/7 active network monitoring, service level agreements and the bandwidth and network architecture to support local and wide area network (LAN/WAN) connectivity.

Dr. John Koehler, Tachyon, Inc.'s Chairman and CEO, said of the Advanced Internet Satellite Extension Project: "From the first, Tachyon has led the technology industry's efforts to enfranchise public and private organizations who want, but cannot have, fast Internet connectivity. We are delighted to be working with a consortium of ADEC's stature and influence. Tachyon is delighted to join the distinguished list of American technology companies which have helped to extend the capabilities of the Internet."

Dr. Janet Poley, President of ADEC and project leader, said: "We are excited at the prospect of advancing the use of Internet technology in education and narrowing the gap between the education 'haves' and the 'have nots'."

ADEC member institutions - the Universtity of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Maryland-College Park, University of California Davis, North Carolina State University, North Carolina A&T University, the University of Illinois and Washington State University - have conducted successful technical trials with Tachyon during the last six months and are the lead participants in the NSF Advanced Satellite Internet Extension Project.

ADEC is particularly interested in how well this type of system can be developed and used for distance education. Future learning applications will need to advance beyond electronic mail, web and other services. Voice and video, as well as document sharing and display, are vitally important to future education programs.

Learning more about the possible use of satellites to deliver rich, Internet-based education applications is critical for the global expansion of the Internet. ADEC recently cooperated with the Midwest International Agricultural Consortium (MIAC) and Tachyon to demonstrate and test the system in Mexico City.

About ADEC and the Advanced Internet Satellite Expansion Project

ADEC is a non-profit consortium of 58 state universities and land grant colleges. In addition to the core institutions identified, ADEC expects that many of its member institutions will become involved in the project. A council including representatives from the historically black colleges, the tribal colleges and Hispanic-serving institutions will be established shortly. Also, a "blue ribbon" panel of well-known experts in teaching and learning methods will be established.

About Tachyon

Tachyon's enterprise class, high performance access to public and private Internet Protocol (IP) networks has been commercially available since March 2000. At speeds of up to two megabits per second, IP traffic is delivered to any location within the continent-wide footprints of existing geostationary satellites around the world.

Tachyon's corporate headquarters are in San Diego, with Mexican headquarters in Mexico City and European headquarters in Amsterdam. For more information, visit the company's web site at www.tachyon.net.

Tachyon.net is a registered trademark and service mark of Tachyon, Inc.