From its inception, the K-20 Education Network was designed to be cost-effective, scalable, and accessible to the statewide education community. By taking an enterprise approach from the outset—that is, coming together to build one network where others might build several—we have instilled efficiencies and economies of scale into the network. As we support the educational community’s technology needs today, we are also building to meet its needs 10 years into the future.

Two decades ago, all K-20 connection were provided as copper-based T1s, with each T1 providing 1.5 megabits per second (Mbps) of data transmission. With the evolving needs of the educational community, and the rapid growth in applications such as videoconferencing, streaming video, and web- based statewide testing, in addition to increasing devices and one-to-one deployments, demand for higher-bandwidth options from the educational community has been increasing.

In response, the K-20 Education Network is providing higher-capacity fiber optic and fixed wireless connections to an increasing number of K-20 locations. These connections provide from 100 Mbps to 20 Gigabits (20,000 Mbps) of connectivity to these institutions, which enable greater usage of evolving applications.

We continue to work with telecommunications carriers, public utility districts, and local governments to provide these powerful connections to our sites. As of 2018, K-20 disconnected our last T1 and is now a one hundred percent Ethernet, 100 Mbps minimum, network with a 100 Gigabit (100,000 Mbps) dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) backbone.