Continued Internet Connectivity for Maine Public Agencies
By Bill Lowell, MSAD 42 Technology Coordinator
The Maine School and Library Network was born out of a decision by the Maine Public Utilities Commission that the predominant telephone supplier for the state had over charged rate payers by 40 million dollars. The public libraries and the Maine Department of Education argued successfully that the best value for the rate payers of the state would be to put the money into providing Internet access to public libraries and schools in the state. Thus the MSLN network came into existence. The network funded in this manner came to be known as MSLN One. This occurred because the funding from the original $40 million was used up and alternative funding was voted in by the state legislature which created the Maine Telecommunications Education Access Fund. This became known as MSLN2
The existing MSLN2 provides Internet access state wide, but the options for schools and libraries are very limited. Sites are limited to a maximum of two T-1 connections / site. High Schools in the state have another option of having an ATM site with considerably higher connection speeds. This comes at a price in that the cost of ATM is considerably higher than a T-1. Costs can be offset by Alternative equivalent Value funding from MSLN2 which defrays part of the cost and by E-Rate funding which will help with additional funding but seldom if ever does this cover all of the cost of the ATM connection.
The ATM was conceived by state government as a way to bring innovative video based distance education to schools throughout the state. ATM provides 50 megabytes of data stream to sites. 40 Gigabytes has been reserved for Video but 10 megabytes has been available for use by sites for data over IP. The concept was innovative in its time but what was really innovative was the concept of delivery of distance education to schools around the state. In the years since its inception the ATM technology has been surpassed by other conductivity solutions.
The contract for ATM video will expire at the end of the current school year. The ATM connection for data will remain and in fact be increased to 20 megabytes for participating schools. ATM does not solve the bandwidth issues for sites that do not have it however. MSLN1 and MSLN2 were conceived and implemented during a time when there were few options for Internet connections in the state. This situation has changed dramatically but the options in MSLN have not. More and more sites are feeling the constraint of too many users and too little bandwidth. Some sites have 'left' MSLN and pursued independent solutions. Others have had no option but to live with what they have.
The Department of Education (DOE), the University of Maine, Maine Office of Information Services and the Maine State library were invited to participate in a working group to try to develop an alternative to the existing system. ACTEM was asked to sit in on the working group by the DOE to represent the views of the schools directly.
Initially the group looked at the pros and cons of the current situation. From this several conclusions were reached. The current plan does not scale into today’s Internet environment. It is not possible to provide viable options to fulfill the bandwidth needs of sites. The cost of increased bandwidth will not be able to be met by the current structure. In addition the group has realized that it is under several time constraints. The PUC requires a plan for continued services be submitted by July 1st 2009. E-rate deadlines will require that contracts be signed by February 1, 2010 to allow for funding for the next fiscal year.
In looking around at what had been done to solve this problem in other areas the state of Missouri's MOREnet was seen as a model that could be used in Maine. In the words of MOREnet's own web page:
“MOREnet links Missouri to a world of knowledge through a statewide research and education network. Schools, public libraries, academic institutions and state agencies linked to the network have access to a secure broadband Internet connection, staff training, technical support and electronic resources, making equitable access possible across Missouri.” http://www.more.net/
The concept for Maine as has been envisioned so far is a central entity, that would be a business branch of the University of Maine System, would contract to run a state wide telecommunications delivery system that would ultimately support education, research, public service, government, and economic development agencies. The agency would be overseen by a council consisting of staff from DOE, UMS, and the office of Maine Information Services. The new entity, tentatively named NetworkMaine, would put out RFP's to build regional networks for schools and libraries with local connections between local schools and libraries that would then back-hall to a central point for connection to the statewide network. The type of connection would be up to the local transport provider and would not be limited by type. While regional
networks may not be possible at all locations, encouraging local service providers to do so would facilitate the movement of fiber to all sites over time and should provide sites with more bandwidth per student than they currently have access to. Where T1's are the only solution limitations would be based on a per pupil basis not a flat limit of 2 T1's.
The group is working at putting a plan together for the PUC to submit in mid-June. A tentative working structure and budget have been put together and are being worked on at this time. Assuming acceptance by the PUC for the plan, RFP's would be put out to vendors by mid-September 2009 and contract signed in a time frame that would meet E-rate requirements.
The original title of this article was “... for Maine Schools and Libraries” but as of May 11th the Maine State Library announced that it was going to pursue an independent RFP for Internet services. Exactly where this leaves the work on a network for schools, other state government agencies, local governments and non-profit research organizations is now up in the air.
About the author: Bill Lowell has 23 years of experience in education and currently serves as Technology Coordinator for MSAD 42 in Mars Hill. He has made the long drive to Augusta several times to represent ACTEM and public schools at meetings to plan for the network to succeed MSLN.
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