tw telecom (News - Alert) is known as a provider of high-quality, managed networking solutions, such as Ethernet services, for businesses. But tw telecom also allows educational institutions to provide students with varied technology solutions. 

These can be for distance education, advanced learning systems, or, video collaboration. The offerings have been available to schools and colleges for a while.

To get an idea of the level of satisfaction found with tw telecom on the part of educational institutions consider the experience of Terence Ma, who was the chief information officer at Touro University Nevada before taking on his current post as associate dean at California Northstate University College of Medicine.

At Touro Nevada, he was responsible for all aspects of information, academic/educational, and communications technologies. He helped to lead the building of the school’s network and academic technology infrastructure. Prior in his career, the Johns Hopkins graduate also worked for private business.  

“We had another provider to start with and then tw telecom acquired this other provider,” Ma said about his experience at Touro in a video. “Since then, we have had absolutely outstanding service from tw telecom. Whenever we have had trouble, it has always been a delay caused by some other person or some other group that had to do their part before tw telecom could do theirs.”

Looking back, he said the school saw “outstanding” reliability and connectivity. Similar respect for tw telecom was found by educational administrators at Academy School District 20 in Colorado Springs and at Colorado College.

Another way tw telecom provides these kinds of tech services is through the eRate program. Overseen by the FCC (News - Alert), eRate lets schools and libraries provide students with access to Information Technology equipment/solutions. tw telecom has been a supplier of the national eRate program for about a decade. It provides discounts to schools and libraries for telecommunications and Internet access.

Funding can be requested for telecommunications services, Internet access, internal connections and basic maintenance of internal connections.

Any discount depends on poverty levels and the urban/rural status of the population served. The schools involved in the program have to provide elementary or secondary education, and can be public or private, day or residential, or even public charter schools. Endowments cannot exceed $50 million. When it comes to libraries, they have to be eligible for assistance from a state library administrative agency. Discounts are determined by identifying the percentage of students eligible for free and reduced lunches under the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). Library branches use the NSLP data for the public school district in which they are located.

tw telecom is a gold sponsor of ITEXPO Miami 2013, held Jan 29- Feb. 1 in Miami, Florida. Visit the company at booth #535 and visit the company speaking at the session, “Panel Session: The Future of Service Providers — Dumb Pipes or Global Leaders?” Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO (News - Alert). Follow us on Twitter.