PenTeleData and Northern Tioga
School District
By Paul Ellis | email: chat@corp.ptd.net

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. The cost was $7,500 per month.

For that price, the district could buy a new Cadillac Escalade, hire a driver at $10-per-hour to drive it back and forth between those two locations, 8 hours per day for a year, quipped a district representative.

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.

Dear PenTeleData Customer,

On behalf of all of us here at PenTeleData, I want to extend the warmest wishes for the New Year to you and your friends and family. We hope 2002 was as good to you and your loved ones as it was to us across Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Since I wrote to you in our last quarterly newsletter in 2002, we've added plenty of new features to our access services for you at no charge, and PenTeleData's suite of Internet solutions has become even more feature-rich as a direct result.

With the introduction of the free spam tagging service for all customer e-mail, configurable tagging features for commercial e-mail customers and the complimentary distribution of the downloadable ProLog Pop-Up Stopper software from our homepage, there's never been a better time to enjoy PenTeleData's trustworthy Internet service.

Also inside this issue, read of PenTeleData and partner Blue Ridge Communications' creation of the education sector's most advanced wide area network in Northern Tioga School District, located in north-central Pennsylvania near New York.

Finally, is your professional medical services organization already HIPAA complaint? With the deadline for full compliance approaching quickly in early-2003, commercial entities in the medical field need to read about how PenTeleData can help toward that end.

From everyone at PenTeleData, have a great remainder of the winter season, be safe and enjoy the New Year.

Sincerely,

Jeff Reinhard
Vice President of Operations

PenTeleData is happy to announce that free ProLog Pop-Up Stopper service is now available for download on our homepage for those customers who like browsing the web without the presence of distracting pop-up ad windows.

In addition to the free e-mail virus scanning you already receive from PenTeleData and free Spam Tagging, Pop-Up Stopper now adds to the countless benefits in security and convenience customers enjoy as users of ProLog / PenTeleData's Internet service.

What are pop-ups? Anyone surfing the web today has been faced with unwanted pop-up ad windows that appear over and over again that annoy and get in the way. Pop-up ad windows waste time, use valuable bandwidth, and both cost money. PenTeleData's Pop-Up Stopper software simply integrates into your Internet Explorer browser as a toolbar, providing seamless function into your browsing environment.

PenTeleData is giving away this pop-up software completely free of charge. Simply type in the link below to download the application. Then, install it on your computer and enjoy the software for as long as you wish - there is no usage charge, and the software does not expire.

The URL is http://www.ptd.net/popstop/

Thank you for your continued patronage, and please contact us here at Technical Support with any questions you might have about the Pop-Up Stopper.

Service Electric Company*: Most of Mahanoy City and Wilkes-Barre, PA.

* Please make sure to call your local ProLog Express provider to see if access is available in your area. Not available in all areas.