Major Milestones in Building the K-20 Network

This timeline recaps some of the events in the development of the K-20 Educational Telecommunications Network. Phase I was completed only 15 months after approval of the technical plan.

April 1996: Washington State Legislature voted to fund the K-20 Educational Telecommunications Network by passing state law E2SSB 6705. The $54.3 million was for three phases.

April 1996: A 16-member Telecommunications Oversight and Policy Committee (TOPC) of legislators, agency executives, educators, and the state librarian, with staff provided by the Department of Information Services (DIS), was created, as specified by the law. It charged the state's Information Services Board (ISB) to implement the technical plan.

April 1996: The ISB created the Technical Working Group of technical experts from the three educational sectors and DIS.

May 1996: Technical plan approved by TOPC and later endorsed by the state's leading private telecommunications companies.

October 1997: Phase I was completed, on time and under budget. This $20 million phase involved the massive task of designing the Internet backbone and procuring expandable, sharable, and cost-effective equipment. All four-year institutions of higher education, the branch campuses of research universities, 32 community and technical colleges, and the 9 regional hubs of the Educational Service Districts in the state--60 sites total--were networked.

Current (1998-99): Phase II is a $26 million effort to design and attach backbone connections to 296 K-12 school districts, 70 off-campus and extension offices for community and technical colleges, and 50 more sites for baccalaureate institutions--over 400 in all. Completion is expected in July 1999.

Future: A proposed Phase III would use the K-20 Network to connect more than just public educational institutions. These might be independent colleges, public libraries, community resource centers, and state agencies such as Human Health Services, Corrections, and others that need educational services.