Fiber provider FiberLight has been selected to build a 10 Gbps fiber network for the Region 16 Education Services Center (ESC) in the Panhandle area of Texas.
The project is part of the FCC’s E-rate program, which gives discounts to eligible schools and libraries to make internet access and telecommunications services more affordable to eligible schools and libraries. For this E-rate project, FiberLight will provide technical assets and expertise to the region, which will generate $10 million as part of its 22% of the E-Rate program. It will fund this through grants, local dollars, and philanthropy.
The center of Region 16 is Amarillo. It comprises 60 school districts, three charter schools on 226 campuses that serve about 80,000 students. The district has small districts of fewer than 300 students and large ones with almost 29,000 students. There are more than 11,000 students and staff members.
“FiberLight has developed a reputation of delivering fiber to underserved, rural areas; our deployment across the Panhandle and Region 16 — Texas’ most underserved area — is a model that we’re quite familiar with,” said FiberLight CEO Bill Major of the E-rate project. “Initially, our fiber backbone will benefit students and educators, but in the long term, there will be a knock-on effect that will activate last-mile fiber providers to deliver fiber to area homes and businesses.”
FiberLight operates about 19,000 route miles and 230,000 pre-qualified near-net buildings. It provides telecommunications services to more than 430 cities with a focus on Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Texas, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.
In April of 2023, FiberLight was acquired by a consortium led by H.R.L. Morrison. At the time, chief strategy officer Ron Kormos told Telecompetitor that the company anticipated that the investment would lead to enterprise opportunities.
Eight months later — in February of this year — FiberLight said that it would deploy 10 GB (as it will for the new E-rate project) and 100 GB connectivity along Texas State Highway 130, which is in the Austin area.
The project focuses on deploying more than 240 Public Infrastructure Network Nodes (PINNs) along 92 miles of the highway. The PINNs will support the development, installation, and software to manage autonomous systems.