News

JAN

10 Registration Open for CTC Technology & Energy’s Online Engineering Courses Through U of MD

Course registration opened this week for two online courses developed and taught by CTC Technology & Energy’s senior engineering team. The Consortium for ITS Training and Education (CITE), a University of Maryland program, offers Telecommunications and Networking Fundamentals and Network Design and Deployment Considerations for ITS Managers and Professionals courses, which start in February and April, respectively. CTC Technology & Energy Principal Engineer Matt DeHaven and Senior Engineer Eric Wirth will teach both courses, drawing on their extensive experience with institutional and wide-area network design and installation.

Online registration for the CITE courses is available at: http://www.citeconsortium.org/registration.html. The courses are free for government agencies, and provide continuing education credit upon successful completion.

Published: Thursday, January 10, 2013 by CTC Technology & Energy

NOV

30 CTC Technology & Energy Reduces Carbon Footprint with Solar Array

CTC Technology & Energy’s investment in solar energy is showing results. The company’s 12.48 kilowatt (DC) rooftop photovoltaic array has produced more than 9 megawatt-hours of energy since it was activated this summer. The energy savings is enough to power 298 houses for a day, and offsets CTC Technology & Energy’s carbon footprint by 6.23 tons, or the equivalent of 160 trees.

CTC Technology & Energy completed installing the solar array at its headquarters office in Kensington, MD in May. With the capacity to produce tens of thousands of watt-hours of energy per day, the solar power source will significantly reduce CTC Technology & Energy’s power grid usage.

The system interfaces with the electrical grid through a “net metering” system, where solar power replaces what would otherwise be drawn from the grid. When more solar power is generated than consumed, the surplus is exported back to the grid.

Published: Friday, November 30, 2012 by CTC Technology & Energy

NOV

21 CTC Technology & Energy Launches Comprehensive Study of Kansas Broadband

The State of Kansas has tapped CTC Technology & Energy to perform a study of broadband availability and use throughout the state. The Kansas Statewide Broadband Initiative (KSBI), part of the Kansas Department of Commerce, initiated the project as part of its mission to better understand the broadband landscape in the state and help expand broadband access and adoption.

The comprehensive project will include surveys of broadband connectivity among residents, businesses, and community anchor institutions (CAI). CTC Technology & Energy and the Department of Commerce launched the first of these surveys this week, sending questionnaires to over 900 schools, libraries and hospitals. This CAI study will help CTC Technology & Energy develop a separate assessment of the ongoing needs of Kansas’s existing public networking program. The final reports will include recommendations on the best strategies to increase broadband adoption and utilization across the state by residents, businesses and community institutions alike.

Published: Wednesday, November 21, 2012 by CTC Technology & Energy

NOV

10 UC2B Holds Ribbon Cutting Ceremony, First Sites Connected in Urbana-Champaign

CTC Technology & Energy congratulates the Urbana Champaign community on connecting the first sites on the Urbana Champaign Big Broadband (UC2B) fiber optic network.

UC2B brings ultra-high speed Internet access to homes and community sites throughout the Urbana Champaign area, with an emphasis on low-income and underserved communities. In September, UC2B received NATOA’s 2012 Community Broadband Project of the Year award for its cutting-edge approach to closing the digital divide. At that time, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn affirmed his commitment to broadband growth throughout the state.

“We are committed to growing our broadband infrastructure to connect every corner of our great state,” said Quinn in September. “I would like to congratulate the Urbana-Champaign Big Broadband project, and I would like to thank them for their innovation and tireless efforts to make a difference in their community.”

Video of the ceremony, courtesy of Urbana Public Television, can be viewed here:

Published: Saturday, November 10, 2012 by CTC Technology & Energy

OCT

12 CTC Technology & Energy-Designed Wireless Network Activated in Port Angeles, WA

The City of Port Angeles is now a giant Wi-Fi hotspot.

City officials marked the launch of the new wireless, citywide network known as “The Mesh” on Monday with a ceremonial cable-cutting. CTC Technology & Energy engineers designed the network architecture and provided business analysis for the project.

The wireless network allows the public to access the Internet on a Wi-Fi enabled device. It also provides the City’s public safety personnel with critical new abilities. Police will now be able to track the position of their fellow officers throughout the city in real-time. Ultimately, the network will allow video exchange between the City’s security cameras and dashboard cameras in police patrol cars.

Public access to the network will be managed by OlyPen MetroNet, a private partner and local telecom company serving the Olympic Peninsula. Wireless service is free through the end of October. On November 1, users can purchase mobile service, on daily, weekly or monthly basis. The network also offers fixed point wireless service with download speeds up to 6 Mbps.

Published: Friday, October 12, 2012 by CTC Technology & Energy

OCT

03 CTC Technology & Energy to Study Broadband Options in Westminster, MD

The City of Westminster, Maryland has tapped CTC Technology & Energy to assess the City’s need for a fiber optic communications network. The Westminster Common Council voted unanimously to approve the study, with council members citing lack of broadband service as an impediment to business interests in the community.

Westminster is one of several cities around the country that have recently begun pursuing fiber infrastructure at the municipal level. In the course of the study, CTC Technology & Energy will seek to identify potential private partners for the City. Any fiber network the City decides to build would almost certainly include a connection to Carroll County’s portion of the One Maryland Broadband Network, an infrastructure initiative connecting every county in the state.

Published: Wednesday, October 3, 2012 by CTC Technology & Energy

SEP

19 Joanne Hovis to Speak on Urbana-Champaign Community Broadband Panel

CTC President Joanne Hovis will speak today on a panel discussion about local broadband planning in Urbana, Illinois. The event, “Models for Building Local Broadband: Public, Private, Coop, Nonprofit,” will bring together other experts in local telecommunications and public broadband for an open discussion of the benefits and challenges of various local broadband strategies.

The cities of Urbana and Champaign are in the midst of constructing a public network using federal grant funds. Urbana-Champaign Big Broadband, known as UC2B, is expected to bring high-speed Internet to 10 percent of the community. Urbana-Champaign has recently applied to expand its network through a public-private partnership with Gigabit Squared, and is actively seeking other potential partners in its efforts to expand broadband in the public interest.

The forum will be broadcast live at 5:30 EST/4:30 CDT on Urbana Public Television as a presentation of the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center. Streaming is available through Urbana Public Television and through Ustream, where viewers can participate via live chat. The recorded broadcast will be made available in the Independent Media Center’s video archive.

Published: Wednesday, September 19, 2012 by CTC Technology & Energy

SEP

13 Hovis, NATOA Outline Final Stages of BTOP

Comm Daily reported Tuesday on a National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA) webinar in which CTC President Joanne Hovis discussed what she sees as the ongoing economic benefits created by the Recovery Act broadband funding.

As Ms. Hovis noted, awardees of Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) grants are now entering the final year of their projects, so they will soon be able to take advantage of new fiber optic infrastructure. In the wake of the federally funded projects, she also reports seeing the emergence of new projects funded at the local level.

But according to Ms. Hovis, BTOP communities across the country have already seen significant economic benefits from their projects. “What I saw was the creation of jobs just in the process of planning, partnering, and building projects or expanding existing projects in order to prepare grant applications to compete for BTOP funds,” she said.

Read the full story in Comm Daily here.

Published: Thursday, September 13, 2012 by CTC Technology & Energy

JUL

17 CTC Clients Win Awards from the Center for Digital Government

CTC congratulates the winners of the 2012 Digital Counties Survey awards from the Center for Digital Government and the National Association of Counties. The awards, which recognize the strategic use of technology and success in governance through IT policies and practices, were given to counties nationwide. Among the winners were CTC clients in Maryland (Baltimore, Charles, and Montgomery counties), Oregon (Clackamas County), Virginia (Fairfax and Loudoun counties), and Washington (King County).

More details about the awards are available in Government Technology magazine’s story on the winners.

Published: Tuesday, July 17, 2012 by CTC Technology & Energy

JUL

12 CTC Client Wins Best in Category Award from NACo

Howard County, Maryland, a leader in statewide public broadband development and longtime CTC client, is one of 19 counties nationwide to receive a Best in Category Achievement Award from the National Association of Counties (NACo). The award recognizes the County’s oversight of the Inter-County Broadband Network (ICBN) initiative.

Under the leadership of County Executive Ken Ulman and CIO Ira Levy, Howard County staff comprise the project management team, which oversees the fiber optic network’s engineering and construction in each of ICBN’s nine member jurisdictions. Once operational, the ICBN is expected to save each jurisdiction significant operating costs, while replacing aging copper infrastructure with a state-of-the-art, high-speed network. CTC congratulates Howard County, and is proud to be a partner in a project that is increasingly recognized at the national level.