Maine District Upgrades to 802.11n WiFi

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Gorham School Department in Maine is deploying an 802.11n wireless network district-wide.

The district has already rolled out the wireless system in its high school--which had no WiFi at all--and will expand to additional schools in the coming years. For the initial rollout, Gorham deployed a wireless system from Meru Networks.

"I was flabbergasted that, with every high school teacher having a laptop and plans calling for every student to have one, there was no wireless access in the high school," said Dennis Crowe, director of technology and information systems, in a statement released by Meru this month. "Wireless became priority number one. We needed a system with sufficient capacity so that when we have one laptop per student, there won't be a bottleneck. And that system had to be rich enough to support a move to wireless IP telephony in the future."

Gorham's 850-student high school was the first to receive the new wireless system. The district's three elementary schools will also be equipped with a Meru WLAN "over the next several years," according to Meru.

Gorham School Department serves about 2,700 students.

About the Author

David Nagel is the former editorial director of 1105 Media's Education Group and editor-in-chief of THE Journal, STEAM Universe, and Spaces4Learning. A 30-year publishing veteran, Nagel has led or contributed to dozens of technology, art, marketing, media, and business publications.

He can be reached at [email protected]. You can also connect with him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidrnagel/ .


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