Customer: Northern Tioga School District
Located in north-central Pennsylvania near the border with the state of New York, the towns of Elkland, Westfield and Tioga are part of the Northern Tioga School District _ home to one of the most advanced voice and data wide area networks PenTeleData has designed for education in the tri-state region.

The district of 2,700 students and 230 staff members required high-speed, dedicated data connectivity between its home office and all of its outlying schools, and needed to dramatically reduce the long distance charges it was paying for calls between these schools.

Three elementary schools and three high schools comprise the district: Elkland Area High School, Clark Wood Elementary School and the district's administration building are in Elkland, PA. On the west end of the district, Cowanesque Valley High School and Westfield Area Elementary are located 13 miles away in Westfield. Williamson High School and R.B. Walter Elementary are 17 miles east of Elkland, in Tioga.

Presenting a further challenge, a LATA (Local Access and Transport Area) is located between Elkland and Tioga Junction. A LATA is a geographical area within which a telecommunications carrier is permitted to offer exchange communications and exchange access services. Carriers are generally prohibited from providing services that originate in one LATA and terminate in another.

Before PenTeleData and its partner Blue Ridge Communications began working with the district, its telephone company charged them for a mileage-sensitive line from Elkland to Dubois, PA and then back to Tioga. At this point, PenTeleData stepped up to the plate. Its partner Blue Ridge Communications built fiber from Wellsboro to Tioga and on out to Elkland. Once the fiber was altogether in place, the district immediately requested increased bandwidth between its locations.

Since the district's backbone network is ATM, the district runs data and voice over one connection and eliminates the need to pay long distance charges between locations. The district also has its own video bridge and does videoconferencing over the network.

From the district office, fiber connects the Williamson High School in Tioga, and another connection links the high school in Elkland. Blue Ridge Communications connected the high school and elementary school buildings in Westfield with fiber, and ATM delivers voice, data and video.

"PenTeleData's monitoring techs often are aware of problems in our network before we realize it ourselves. Also, they frequently check with us if they see our web server has gone down to make sure we are doing routine maintenance. PenTeleData's sales engineers are knowledgeable and offer viable solutions to our unique problems." "We've been extremely satisfied with the dedicated Internet connection, ATM and other services from PenTeleData and its partner Blue Ridge Communications," says Northern Tioga School District Technology Coordinator Roland Snyder.

We are extremely satisfied with PenTeleData's network performance and dependability throughout the relationship, he says. "We have not had one complete 'down' day due to PenTeleData problems; Tough to beat that!"

Also extremely happy with PenTeleData's level of customer service and support, Snyder says, "Whether dealing with the 'help desk' or the top engineering staff, I have always received prompt, knowledgeable service ending in a solution to our problem."

How has PenTeleData's high-speed dedicated Internet connection, ATM and other services enabled Northern Tioga School District to maintain, advance and develop its technology plans?

"With a limited number of 'technology players' in our northern tier, PenTeleData invested and partnered with us to develop the necessary infrastructure to bring the first high-speed Internet connective in the valley by installing fiber optic lines. As a result, PenTeleData can efficiently provide our district increased bandwidth as our needs grow," he says.