Utah Education Network:Briefing for Utah Broadband

Forum

Michael Petersen, Executive Director, UENJeff Egly, Associate Director, Technical Services, UEN

October 13, 2011

The Utah Education Network within the Utah Education and Government Sector

● UEN is an educational technology partnership of public and higher education, providing educational technology services statewide.

● Established by statute, and reports directly to the Legislature and the Governor.

● UEN is governed by a 25 member Steering Committee whose members represent public and higher education, state library director, governor’s office, and state legislature

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UEN’s Core Responsibility

● The network is a public-private partnership between UEN and Utah telecommunications providers.

● UEN does not own the network. We lease circuits from telecommunications companies using multi-year contracts.

To provide a statewide wide area network with robust and reliable connectivity to the Internet for every public school and college, and every public library.

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County-level Example of the UEN Network

Other UEN Services

• Professional development

• KUEN TV

• Interactive videoconferencing

• Web services• Learning

management services

• Pioneer Online Library

• UEN.org

UEN Funding Model

● UEN pays the full cost of its services so network and Internet connections are free to school districts, charter schools, universities, colleges

Major Revenue Sources:

1.State Appropriations ($17 million)

2.Federal E-Rate reimbursements ($11 million

3.Federal Grants ($8 million)

Funding Model Challenges

• We are currently working with the Steering Committee to modify the funding model, but still keep its main features

• During past 4 years, our state appropriation has been reduced by $4 million

• 23 staff positions have been eliminated, and many other budget cutting steps taken

ARRA Stimulus Award: Utah Anchors Project

● 149 community anchor institutions are being connected to the UEN network through BTOP infrastructure project:● elementary and charter schools, libraries, head start

centers, higher education campuses● 185 miles of fiber will be added● 70,000 residential and 1,000 business telecom

customers will benefit from new broadband services