Laura Fontana

Traditionally, school districts have been late adopters rather than pioneers of technology. The New Brunswick (New Jersey) School District, though, stepped into the technology fray in a big way when it recently built its own wireless network in order to loosen the captive hold the phone company held over its 13-site operation. Now, the district is reaping the expected benefits of tens of thousands of dollars in savings on phone bills, as well as significantly higher data and access speeds on its network. More surprising are the ways that the schools are using the network to improve the safety and security of the students. When the district implemented its wireless network in February 2002, the new technology boosted the schools' wide area network speed from a paltry 1.5Mbps to over 100Mbps. At the same time it saved the district the $50,000 per year it was spending... (more)