Firm signs fiber optic contract

Columbia Fiber Solutions, a Spokane telecommunications company that leases access to its 300-mile fiber optic network, has signed a contract with the Mead School District to provide high-speed connections to 10 district buildings.

John Everett, general manager of Columbia Fiber, said the Mead contract is one of the largest the company has ever signed. Columbia Fiber was formed in 2002 when it purchased the fiber optic network originally created by Avista Corp.

The Mead School District’s Gigabit Ethernet network “will have a tremendous positive impact on the learning environment available to the students and staff,” said Dan Butler, the district’s director of technology, planning and budgets.

Gigabit Ethernet connections operate at speeds up to 1,000 megabits per second. That broadband capacity will let teachers and administrators transfer video, conduct video conferences and operate voice, data and Internet service across the district’s facilities, said Butler.

Mead School District is the second-largest school district in Spokane County, with approximately 8,500 students, two high schools, one alternative high school, two middle schools and seven elementary schools. The rollout of the fiber optic network will affect six elementary schools, one middle school, two senior high schools and the administration building, said Butler.

The installation and lighting of the fiber — adding power sources at connection points — will cost Mead officials $383,300, Butler said. Mead will also pay a lease fee of $6,551 per month for the system, he added.

Those costs will be paid from a portion of last year’s Mead bond measure, which raised $3.7 million for technology and other uses, said Butler.

The rollout to the schools will come in two phases, said Everett. District buildings that are near Columbia’s North Side fiber lines will be connected within the next few months. It will take several more months to reach two remote buildings, Mount Spokane High School and Colbert Elementary, Everett said. In their cases, Columbia Fiber Solutions needs to extend its network across two highways and other rights of way.

Columbia Fiber has similar contracts with most of the other school districts in the area. “Frankly, the Mead district was the largest one we didn’t have,” said Everett.