Background

In 1997, the Commission on Higher Education convened a Technology Task Force as called for in Looking to the New Millennium: New Jersey’s Plan for Higher Education.

The task force was integral in developing the state’s $50 million Higher Education Technology Infrastructure Fund, which set aside $5 million for interconnectivity.  A total of $45 million was committed to enhance individual campus infrastructure and required a dollar-for-dollar match. The $5 million set aside also required an institutional match and was targeted to support the creation of a single broadband network utility to support the collaborative efforts of colleges and universities in the state.  The task force completed its work after five months, but established a Technology Advisory Committee to assist the Commission and Presidents’ Council in developing a statewide network and governance structure.  In 2000, a network governance structure was established with the Presidents’ Council Executive Board serving as the board of directors of this not-for-profit corporation.

From the outset, the undertaking was predicated on the assumption that broadband connectivity is a utility that is critical to carry out the core missions of the higher education community in New Jersey.  It was further recognized that there are true economies-of-scale to be realized by investing cooperatively in this utility. 

At the start of 2003, NJEDge.Net had built a state-of-the-art network through a partnership with Verizon.  A governance and organizational structure was established, and operational procedures were implemented.  Today there are 53 educational institutions participating in the NJEDge.Net and together they account for a combined total of over 1 gigabit of Internet and 300 megabits of Internet2 bandwidth traveling over a managed IP infrastructure that covers the entire state. 

We have provided these institutions with a statewide regional optical backbone, Broadband Internet Services (1500+Mb), comprehensive Voice Services, sophisticated video conferencing & distance learning capabilities, streaming video resources and video-on-demand, regional access to Internet2, interoperability with the K-12 Video Portal (Access New Jersey) and shared access to a Satellite Uplink/Downlink facility.

                     

Wireless Classroom in Middlesex Community College 

          

Students at Passaic High School monitoring videoconference