Forney Independent School District of Texas Selects Bluesocket vWLAN™ 802.11n Wireless Network to Enable E-Book Learning Initiative

Burlington, Mass. – July 14, 2009 – Bluesocket, Inc., (www.bluesocket.com), the leader in trusted wireless access and enterprise mobility, today announced that Forney Independent School District of Texas is building its wireless network with Bluesocket’s next-generation, high-performance WLAN solution including its award winning 802.11n 1800 series BlueSecure^TM Access Points.  The Texas school district serves over 7,600 students located in fourteen schools composed of grades K-12.

To proactively address fiscal constraints, the District launched a 1:1 student notebook initiative in 2004 to overcome a shortage of text books.  Through the E-Book Program each student in grades 5-12 will receive an 802.11n-enabled notebook pre-loaded with curriculum-specific course materials including electronic text books, homework assignments and in-class testing. Initially piloted at one of the elementary schools, the district-wide program roll out will be completed during the 2010-2011 school year. 

With the success and continued growth of the E-Book program, the District recognizes the need for advanced network management capabilities and user location tracking.  They continue to add Access Points as new schools are brought into the program and require fast, reliable and automatic network access.  As the program expands across the District, IT administrators need an efficient and effective way to administer the technology and monitor network usage.

“A high-speed, reliable 802.11n wireless network that offers location-based tracking and simultaneous user log-in is essential to the success of the E-Book program,” says Mark Hunter, Network Engineer at Forney Independent School District.  “We also knew we needed a solution that would provide significant scalability and performance and Bluesocket’s vWLAN™ architecture is ideally suited to meet our needs.  At the client level, our teachers are focused on delivering the highest quality education to our students and don’t have the time or resources to deal with connectivity issues or slow network performance.  The Bluesocket solution is a great fit with simple licensing, massive scalability and robust performance.  As well, the ability to integrate with and extend the investment of our existing third-party access points was a huge bonus for the District”.

Bluesocket surpassed tough competition during an extensive test period, both in product performance and onsite support.  With Bluesocket’s assistance, Hunter was able to set up a 3-month demo at one of the elementary schools.  “Having unlimited access to the Bluesocket hardware and onsite engineering support was really amazing.  Bluesocket made it clear from the beginning that they view our relationship as a long-term partnership, now and in the future,” says Hunter.

Following the test period Bluesocket worked closely with Hunter to customize a solution for the Forney District.  The initial implementation is scheduled to be completed this summer and will support the two high schools with more than 250 high-performance 1800 series BlueSecure™ 802.11n Access Points.  Once the district is fully implemented, the Bluesocket deployment will have in excess of 700 high-performance 1800 series BlueSecure™ 802.11n Access Points.  Additionally, the Bluesocket management system will enable the District to leverage and extend the life cycle of their existing network, improve network security with location-based controls and secure guest access, and reduce IT administrative time through a single management platform.

 “Bluesocket is committed to providing best-in-class technology and support to the Forney Independent School District.   We look forward to continuing our close relationship as they grow and expand their wireless network,” says Mads Lillelund, chief executive officer at Bluesocket.  “As with the Forney deployment, we are leveraging our vWLAN™ architecture in opportunities that have significant scalability and performance requirements and challenging traditional overlay architectures where scalability comes at a price including higher operating costs and network complexity.”

About Forney Independent School District

Since the turn of the century in 2000, the Forney Independent School District has been ranked as one of the fastest-growing school districts in the State of Texas.  Located approximately 20 miles east of Dallas, Texas, Forney ISD is recognized as one of the most progressive and successful school districts in the area. For nearly 110 years the district has provided the children of Forney with a top quality education in an advanced and encouraging learning environment that allows students in Forney ISD the opportunity to grow and develop into young adults. For more information about the Forney Independent School District, please visit www.forneyisd.net.

About Bluesocket

Founded in 1999, Bluesocket is a leader in open, standards based enterprise mobility solutions.  Its industry-leading wireless LAN products deliver secure mobility to thousands of customers across the education, enterprise, government, healthcare and hospitality markets. Bluesocket’s complete wireless network solution portfolio brings trust and simplicity to increasingly complex wireless networks maximizing customer ROI and increasing their competitive edge.  For more information, please visit http://www.bluesocket.com.

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