The Walker School Turns to Comcast Business Class Ethernet to Power
Students' Digital Learning
ATLANTA, Nov. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Comcast today
announced that The Walker School, a college-preparatory pre-K-12
independent school in metro Atlanta, is using Comcast Business Class
Ethernet to provide additional bandwidth at a lower cost as the
school continues to grow its use of online learning tools and
applications across a seven-building campus.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120517/NE09008LOGO
)
Besides powering more iPads and cloud-based applications on
campus, the new Ethernet service also supports the school's online
systems for creating and recording report cards, grade books,
attendance, group collaboration, and communicating with students
and parents.
With more than 1,000 students, 180 faculty and staff, and 400
computers for accessing the Internet, educational applications and
online resources, The Walker School had seen a significant increase
in data traffic on its network. In addition, the school's Bring
Your Own Device (BYOD) support meant there were typically 100-150
mobile devices simultaneously on the network accessing the
Internet, educational applications, or other content. As a result,
the school's previous 15 Mbps Internet connection was getting
bogged down, especially during peak hours of the school day.
To address its growing bandwidth needs, The Walker School's
Information Technology (IT) department started speaking with area
schools about their service providers and received a lot of
positive feedback that Comcast was able to provide faster
connectivity at competitive prices. After researching their
options, the school selected Comcast to install a fiber network
connection to its campus with a 100 Mbps Internet service. The
installation was completed during summer break and students and
staff returning for the new school year remarked on the noticeable
improvement in Internet speed and connectivity. The Walker School
is now getting seven times more bandwidth while its cost per
megabit per second has dropped 76 percent.
"We experienced periodic downtime with our previous vendor, and
it was important for us to have a more stable connection,
especially with more and more devices accessing the Internet," said
Kerry Bossak, director of technology
for The Walker School. "While the increased bandwidth and
guaranteed network uptime were important factors in switching to
Comcast Business Class, the cost advantage is a big deal for us
because it means we have the bandwidth to support our technology in
education initiatives while saving money to invest in other areas
of education."
The Walker School recognizes the importance of embracing and
integrating technology tools, applications and devices into all
aspects of student life, therefore bandwidth capacity will always
be an important issue for the IT department. Another reason for
moving to Comcast Business Class Ethernet was the ability for The
Walker School to increase bandwidth whenever needed, often by
simply making a phone call to Comcast, so that students, teachers
and staff always have access to the educational tools and resources
they need to focus on running the school and learning.
"As more schools move to online learning resources and
integrating connected devices into the curriculum through programs
such as BYOD, having fast and reliable Internet connectivity is
essentially the blackboard and chalk equivalent of 21st
century classrooms," said Bob
Deckard, regional vice president, Comcast Business Services,
Atlanta. "Because our Ethernet
services are delivered across our modern fiber-based network, we
are able to provide reliable, high-performance connectivity to our
customers that can easily scale up as their bandwidth demands
change."
About The Walker School
The Walker School is the
college-preparatory independent school for families seeking an
engaging educational experience within an intimately scaled, caring
and diverse community where opportunities abound and meaningful
relationships inspire transformative learning.
For more information, call 678-581-6891 or visit
thewalkerschool.org.
About Comcast Business Services
Comcast Business Services, a unit of Comcast Cable, provides
advanced communication solutions to help organizations of all sizes
meet their business objectives. Through a modern, advanced network
that is backed by 24/7 technical support, Comcast delivers Business
Class Internet, TV and Voice services for cost-effective,
simplified communications management.
Launched in 2011, the Comcast Business Class Ethernet suite
offers high-performance point-to-point and multi-point Metro
Ethernet services with the capacity to deliver cloud computing,
software-as-a-service, business continuity/disaster recovery and
other bandwidth-intensive applications. Comcast Metro Ethernet
services are significantly faster than T1 lines and other legacy
technologies, providing scalable bandwidth from 1 Mbps up to 10
Gigabits-per-second (Gbps) in more than 20 major US markets.
For more information, call 866-429-3085 or visit
business.comcast.com/enterprise.
About Comcast Cable
Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) is one of the nation's
leading providers of entertainment, information and communications
products and services. Comcast is principally involved in the
operation of cable systems through Comcast Cable and in the
development, production and distribution of entertainment, news,
sports and other content for global audiences through NBCUniversal.
Comcast Cable is one of the nation's largest video, high-speed
Internet and phone providers to residential and business customers.
Comcast is the majority owner and manager of NBCUniversal, which
owns and operates entertainment and news cable networks, the NBC
and Telemundo broadcast networks, local television station groups,
television production operations, a major motion picture company
and theme parks.
Media Contacts:
Nidhi Mathson
Davies
Murphy Group
781.418.2460
nmathson@daviesmurphy.com
Brian
Farley
Comcast
678.385.5149
Brian_Farley@cable.comcast.com
SOURCE Comcast Corporation