Networking & Wireless

Mercersburg Academy Upgrades to 500 Mbps Ethernet Dedicated Internet Line

• By Leila Meyer
• 12/10/14

Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania has replaced its 100 megabit-per-second (Mbps) Ethernet network with a new service that provides download speeds up to five times faster to give students and faculty faster access to online resources and better Internet performance from anywhere on campus.

Mercersburg Academy is a private, co-ed college preparatory boarding school located on a 300-acre campus with 30 school buildings and seven student dormitories. The school's 530 students and faculty use tablets for communication, education and entertainment. As many as 600 to 700 tablets and other mobile devices were competing for network access at any given moment, and the existing 100 Mbps network could no longer serve the demand.

The school upgraded to Comcast Business Ethernet, which provides the school with a 500 Mbps Ethernet dedicated Internet line. According to information on the company's site, the service connects from an Ethernet virtual connection (EVC) at the school to a Comcast Internet point-of-presence (POP) router to provide a "highly secure, dedicated connection" between the school's local area network (LAN) and the public Internet. The school also implemented Comcast Business TV for all of its classrooms and residences.

"Our students can now download online productivity apps, access educational videos, and watch movies from streaming services right from their dorm rooms during their free time without experiencing any buffering or caching issues," said Ryan Bennett, director of technology for Mercersburg Academy, in a prepared statement.

Faculty at the school are also using the service for "faster access to learning management systems and collaboration portals," according to a news release from Comcast.