Funny thing, ENA is the company out here that is partnered with Qwest to provide the "management" and ERATE funding applications. They are getting a fixed $1,047/school/month for their services. That is going to total ~$1.5million/year for management. Unbelievable.
I think Qwest and ENA are partnering up all over the country to provide this sort of service. It should be criminal the amount of money that is being charged to ERATE and the tax payers when other more competitive options are available. They get away with the overcharging to ERATE by writing an RFP that only Qwest and ENA can win and then the schools are protected from the typical competitive bidding for the ERATE jobs. Perhaps we should write and file formal complaints with the FCC concerning the overcharging for services. Kevin -----Original Message----- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Steve Barnes Sent: Friday, March 12, 2010 8:09 AM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] State Education Networks? In Indiana it's even more interesting. The state bid out control of the state networks years ago and a Tennessee Company ENA.com won and now controls all the public school network funding. We have 5 School corp.'s in the county and I have networks towers within a mile from each. But since I am not a telco or supply a fiber line they get each of the school's 2-5 T1's from Verizon @ $485/ T1. I offered a 10meg connection to each interconnecting all the schools and I cant even get a call back from ENA. Talking to the local schools just gets a phone number to call ENA. Steve Barnes RC-WiFi Wireless Internet Service -----Original Message----- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Kevin Owen Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2010 11:17 PM To: WISPA General List Subject: [WISPA] State Education Networks? The State I provide service in (Idaho) is in the process of building a Statewide Educational Network. I am interested in hearing from any of you are providing service in a State that has built a State Educational Network and if so, are local providers used to provide any of the last miles services to the schools? Idaho started by saying they would work with the local providers, however, now they have changed their tune and local providers are not given the opportunity to even bid on the service. Qwest is charging at least 3 - 5 times what any of the other local ISP's could or would charge for the same or more bandwidth. We are simply told we are not able to provide the service due to technical reasons, however, the State thus far has not defined what those technical reasons are. The difference in cost per year is in the millions. Our State IT group is also saying this is how it is done in other states to provide a quality and cost effective network. So does anybody provide any last mile services to any Statewide educational network? Thanks, Kevin First Step Internet, LLC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
