BCNET News
BCNET Celebrates the Completion of its Network Expansion Project Supporting a New Digital Era in Higher Ed
BCNET expanded the footprint of the Advanced Network to encompass every public, post-secondary institution in BC. The new infrastructure enables world-class research, education and innovation across urban, rural and remote communities in BC.
We are delighted to report the successful completion of the multi-year, BCNET Network Expansion Project. The project is a key strategic initiative to support the increasing demand for digital innovation in higher education.
Since the project’s inception in 2013, we collaborated with members and stakeholders to connect an additional 101 major, rural and remote campus sites to the Advanced Network, improving higher ed connectivity across the Province. Today, every public, post-secondary institution is connected directly to the high-speed Network, regardless of geographic location. The new infrastructure provides equal opportunity for researchers, students and faculty to participate in and contribute to the advancement of education, research and innovation.
Network Expansion by the Numbers
Since the project kickoff in 2014, we transitioned 18 institutions to the Advanced Network, connected 101 new campus sites and added 138 gigabits of bandwidth.
“Our success in concluding the Network Expansion Project is deeply rooted in our collaborative approach to partnering and working with our community of members and stakeholders. I want to thank the team at BCNET, along with our members and the Ministry of Advanced Education, Skills & Training for their support and commitment."
BALA KATHIRESAN
President & CEO | BCNET
Improving Access to New and Emerging Technologies
By leveraging the new infrastructure, institutions across BC have powerful networks to transform service delivery for students, faculty and staff. The network enables access to technology learning systems tools such as: digital textbooks, videoconferencing, instructional technologies and distant learning. High-speed, secure and reliable networks support data-intensive collaborative research, mobile computing, cloud computing and equal access to a wide range of BCNET shared services.
"We continue to develop our research collaborations with industry and community and we are well positioned to reach out more broadly to potential partners knowing that bandwidth limitations will no longer be a barrier to our communication or our data sharing"
GABY ZEZULKA
Chair of Academic Innovation and Applied Research | College of the Rockies
"The increase in capacity of our infrastructure is virtually unheard of outside of urban areas. We now have an incredible 10-gigabit backbone between our six campus sites in Castlegar, Nelson and Trail and the capability to turn-up our three learning centres with a similar capacity in the near future."
DARRELL HICKS
IT Manager, Strategic Projects, IT Services Department | Selkirk College
"This is a watershed moment for applied research and innovation at Selkirk College and will increase our institution's capacity to serve communities and businesses in the region. Researchers now have direct access to advanced research computing resources, supercomputers and data management facilities via our new network connections."
DR. TERRI MACDONALD
Director of Applied Research and Innovation | Selkirk College
“Advanced Networks and improved Internet connectivity is essential to the teaching and learning experience. Our students and faculty now have enhanced access to high-quality interactive streaming video and other services to share and participate in content, lectures and discussions.”
JACKIE HOGAN
Chief Financial Officer | UFV
