Mar 20, 2017

Sunesys Awarded the 2017 Innovations in Networking Award for Corporate Partnership

In recognition of their work to provide high-speed, cost-effective network connections for CENIC and its members, and their efforts in collaboration with CENIC and UCSC, to develop a successful application for California Advanced Services Funding to construct new fiber in the Salinas Valley, CENIC has selected Sunesys, a Crown Castle Company, and Vice President Alan Katz, who with his team led these efforts, as the recipients of the 2017 Innovations in Networking Award for Corporate Partnership.

Thanks to the commitment of the Sunesys team and their understanding of the importance of high-speed broadband for the research and education communities in California, Sunesys and CENIC have been able to move forward on numerous initiatives in support of these communities. Their responsiveness to K-12 Requests for Proposals has enabled CENIC to serve some of the hardest to reach schools in California.

The successful application for California Advanced Services Funding and the construction of new fiber in the Salinas Valley, scheduled for completion at the end of March, will provide enhanced connectivity for two CENIC member institutions: UC Santa Cruz and the Hartnell College. As important, this connectivity enables local ISPs with the capacity to provide Internet services to underserved areas in the Salinas Valley, which in turn, helps communities that have not had adequate (or any) Internet services, as well as CENIC constituents, particularly K-12 students in their schools and in their homes.

“The Sunesys fiber project from Southern Santa Cruz County down through Salinas Valley of Monterey, will provide improved and affordable Internet to underserved areas in Monterey County, as well as CENIC constituents in this region,” said Louis Fox, president and CEO of CENIC. “It is a powerful example of rich collaboration among a private sector company, the California Public Utility Commission’s Advanced Services Fund, which provided a significant subsidy, CENIC, and the communities touched by this project.”

In previous years, Sunesys also assisted CENIC in serving California State Universities — in San Bernardino, Los Angeles, San Marcos, and Pomona — as they built new fiber routes in these areas. Lastly, the Sunesy-CENIC collaboration has been a model for how the CENIC community can work with other, similar companies who build infrastructure for California’s communities.

CENIC presents the Innovations in Networking Awards at its annual conference to highlight the exemplary innovations that leverage ultra-high bandwidth networking, particularly where those innovations have the potential to transform how instruction and research are conducted or where they further the deployment of broadband in underserved areas.

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