April 20 2015
Partnership supports third-largest student population in the United States
SALT LAKE CITY – CenturyLink, Inc. (NYSE: CTL) today announced that its gigabit service is helping the Utah Education and Telehealth Network (UETN) create a network capable of carrying more than a full terabit of combined bandwidth across 1,412 schools and educational locations in Utah. Of those locations, 832 are equipped with CenturyLink fiber-enabled broadband service, providing ultra-fast speeds from 1 to 100 gigabits per second (Gbps).
“I am very proud Utah is home to the nation’s most connected educational system,” said Utah Gov. Gary Herbert. “Since its inception, UETN has stood as one of the nation’s most successful public/private partnerships and it is a great example of the things high Internet bandwidth can accomplish when it is readily available for educational goals.”
In addition to serving 824,000 students in K-12 and university campuses, UETN supports applied technology campuses, libraries and healthcare clinics. CenturyLink has served as a continuous technology partner to UETN and its predecessor, EDNET for more than two decades. UETN includes the Utah Education Network (UEN) and the Utah Telehealth Network (UTN).
“As the gigabit leader in Utah, we are proud to work with UETN to deliver technology that helps enhance the educational opportunities for students throughout the state,” said Jeremy Ferkin, CenturyLink vice president of operations. “Our partnership with UETN was one of the key drivers allowing CenturyLink to quickly deliver gigabit technology across Utah.”
“In practical terms, UETN has been successful in making Utah the home of the nation’s most connected educational system,” said Ray Timothy, who has served as CEO and executive director since 2012. “We also partner with research institutions to provide 100 gigabit capabilities for moving big data. It is allowing their innovation to be fully unleashed.”
In addition to connecting approximately 60 percent of Utah schools to UETN’s network and providing the backbone infrastructure for its education and healthcare networks, CenturyLink is also the largest provider of gigabit services to residential and business customers in the Salt Lake City metro area and the state of Utah.
CenturyLink provides gigabit services to more than 11,500 businesses along the Wasatch Front, with fiber available to tens of thousands of additional Utah businesses, and is deploying speeds up to 1 Gbps to households throughout the Salt Lake City area, as well as in parts of St. George in southern Utah.
About CenturyLink
CenturyLink is the third largest telecommunications company in the United States and is recognized as a leader in the network services market by technology industry analyst firms. The company is a global leader in cloud infrastructure and hosted IT solutions for enterprise customers. CenturyLink provides data, voice and managed services in local, national and select international markets through its high-quality advanced fiber optic network and multiple data centers for businesses and consumers. The company also offers advanced entertainment services under the CenturyLink® Prism™ TV and DIRECTV brands. Headquartered in Monroe, La., CenturyLink is an S&P 500 company and is included among the Fortune 500 list of America’s largest corporations. For more information, visit www.centurylink.com.