KsFiberNet
Address: Wichita Office – 8201 E 34th St Cir N. Suite1501
Wichita, KS 67226
Kansas City Office – 10875 Benson Dr. Suite 250
Overland Park, Ks 66210
Website: www.ksfiber.net
Phone: 877-492-2555
Contact: Bob Wallentine – Director of Network Development
Company Information
KsFiberNet was founded in 2009 and is a cooperative of 28 telecommunications companies in Kansas. KsFiberNet (often referred to as KFN) connected the existing communications infrastructure of these small, and often rural, companies to form a large communications network covering the state. KFN also connects with other carriers outside of Kansas, with data centers in Denver, Dallas, Omaha, Chicago, and Tulsa. Interconnecting these existing footprints created a large fiberoptic footprint the KFN continues to expand. This cooperative pools the resources of the member companies and allows KFN to offer enterprise class communications to businesses and carriers in rural areas that typically struggle to get high bandwidth communication options (KsFiberNet, 2021).
Why I am Interested
KsFiberNet has created a network that delivers rural areas the same high-capacity communications services businesses in urban areas have had access to for years. KFN is helping to close the digital divide in Kansas. While KFN provides commercial and carrier communications, their network is also helping to bring better communications services to residential customers in underserved rural communities. By interconnecting the networks of their member companies, they have greater bandwidth to offer to the residential customers they serve. Their network also provides high bandwidth connections to nonmember rural ISPs, enabling those companies to offer higher bandwidth options to their customer base. Connecting more Kansans to high bandwidth internet and telecommunications services is exciting and something I would love to be a part of.
Questions to Help Me Succeed
- With 28 independent telco’s working as cooperative network, how do you ensure that new services or technologies will function as expected across the many different platforms in you member networks?
- KsFiberNet has an expansive fiber optic network that continues to grow, but sometimes building fiber to feed one very rural customer is not cost effective. Does KFN currently utilize any wireless Transport to serve customers, or do you plan to in the future?
- Could a new telecommunications company join the KFN member network, or is the cooperative capped with the current 28 members?
- Is KFN’s currently focused more on expanding their network coverage or developing new services to offer customer’s?
Velocity
Address: 216 S Vine
El Dorado, KS 67042
Website: www.velocity.coop or www.butler.coop
Phone: 316-321-9603
Contact: I used the websites chat feature to ask for career contact information, the agent told me if interested in employment to fill out an application online at SKM_C45820030514040 (multiscreensite.com) or stop by their office and pick up an application. They would contact me if my skills fit any of their open positions.
Company Information
Velocity is a division of Butler Electric Cooperative that began in March of 2018 to provide telecommunication services to BEC customers and surrounding communities. The primary focus of Velocity is to provide internet service to the customers it serves. Velocity leverages these internet connections to provide VOIP telephone services and streaming television services via Roku sticks and Sling TV. Velocity is currently operating as a WISP, utilizing wireless transport to deliver their services to customer homes with a fiber optic infrastructure connecting their towers back to their central office. Installation consists of an antenna mounted to a customer’s roof and then wires ran down to the modem/gateway to provide internet service and WiFi functionality. The service requires line-of-site between the nearest Velocity tower and the antennae. This sometimes requires a mast or wooden pole be installed at the customer’s home, an expense that can be broken up into monthly installments on the customer’s bill. Velocity’s website does indicate that after the initial deployment of their wireless services, fiber to the home services may be explored (Velocity, 2021) (Butler Electric Coop, 2021).
Why I am Interested
Velocity is a fairly young company that is still developing their network. Like KsFiberNet, Velocity is working to bridge the digital divide and connect more homes and businesses to broadband internet. With the backing of the members of the Butler Electric Cooperative, I expect that the wireless internet services are just the beginning for Velocity. I am excited to see them grow and offer more services and better reliability to the customers in Kansas’ biggest county. I would love to be a part of the development and deployment of new infrastructure as Velocity grows their network and service offerings.
Questions to Help Me Succeed
- Your website states that fiber to the home services will be considered after the initial wireless deployment, is that still being considered and is there a timeframe on the buildout?
- Line-of-sight wireless communication services have many factors that can interfere and disrupt services, what steps does Velocity take to ensure reliable connections for their customers?
- Are you currently able to provide service to all customers serviced by Butler Electric Coop? If not, when will all customers be reached by Velocity service?
- With each tower feeding multiple customers, does congestion ever become an issue causing a slowdown in customer speeds?
- Are you towers protected from power interruptions by UPS and or generators, and if so, what is the expected run time in the event of a prolonged power outage to the tower?
Wichita State University
Address: 1845 Fairmount St
Wichita, KS 67260
Website: www.wichita.edu
Phone: 316-978-3456
Contact: John Rankin – Director of IT Operations – john.rankin@wichita.edu, 316-978-3861
Company Information
Wichita State University is the largest university in Wichita, with a 330 acre campus and approximately 16,000 students. Located in the Air Capital, WSU has highly regarded engineering programs especially in the aerospace fields. Students from roughly 100 countries attend WSU each semester, with about 10% of the student body on non-immigrant visas. Wichita State has partnerships with many top organizations including NetApp who is in the process of opening a new 168,000 sq ft facility on the WSU campus (NetApp Breaks Ground For Building on Wichita State University Innovation Campus – Crossland, 2021). The National Institute for Aviation Research also has a partnership with WSU, creating an amazing opportunity for students during their educational journey as well as job placement assistance. (Wichita.edu, 2021).
Why I am Interested
WSU has a large campus that continues to expand. The many educational buildings, residential halls, and partnerships create an expansive and complicated network to maintain. Wichita State’s engineering programs are on the cutting edge of technology, and their computer networks must be able to keep up with the growing demands. I believe that working in the Information Technology department at Wichita State would be a challenging career that provided many opportunities to expand my computer networking knowledge and skillset. I would enjoy working on not only the campus network, but working with the many partner organizations to connect students to resources offered by the partnerships.
Questions to Help Me Succeed
- Has the COVID19 situation put a strain on the network resources and how has your department had to adapt?
- The Wichita State campus has see a lot of growth over the last few years with new buildings going up all over campus. With this growth, are you simply expanding the network into these new buildings, or are you having to upgrade the core infrastructure to accommodate additional connections?
- When developing new partnerships, what steps are being taken to give students access to partnering organizations resources, while keeping the WSU and partnering organizations networks secure?
High Touch Technologies
Address: 110 S Main St. Suite 600
Wichita, KS 67202
Website: hightouchtechnologies.com
Phone: 316-395-0501
Contact: Nici Duncan – VP Human Resources
Company Information
High Touch Technologies is a full-service technology partner for businesses, offering software, communication, and technology services to their customers. High Touch began in the 1970’s developing the first Point-of-Sale system for the rent-to-own industry. High Touch is headquartered in Wichita, Ks and has expanded with offices in Denver, Kansas City, San Antonio, Dallas, and Corpus Christi. High Touch services customers all over the world with specialized software, webhosting and security, computer networking solutions, video conferencing, phone systems, and many other technology related services. Through acquisition and growth, High Touch has become a full service technology partner for businesses.
Why I am Interested
High Touch Technologies offers a vast array of products and services to their customers. Many companies will have a phone vendor, a network vendor, a website hosting company, and a handful of other vendors to meet their business need. High Touch handles all these functions, giving their customers fewer vendors to keep track of and less finger pointing if an issue should arise. I believe that a career at High Touch would give me an opportunity to learn and work on new systems that are related to computer networking and telecommunications. I feel that I would continue to learn throughout my career as High Touch continues to evolve the products and services they offer to their customers.
Questions to Help Me Succeed
- High Touch offers a vast array of services to your customers, are there any additional services you are looking to add in the near future?
- With so many products and different employees that specialize in each area, how do you avoid confusing your customer with many different people to communicate with?
- Do you cross train employees to handle multiple services/products, or do you prefer to have staff specialize in one area?
As a networking and telecommunication student I can see the more opportunity in the new growing company or service provider like Velocity as my potential employer as well. I found out that they are working to expand their broadband services all across Kansas with a reliable price. I would love to be a part of their development and deployment of new infrastructure as well.