Toll Road Provides Broadband Access for Students

(photo courtesy of the Indiana Toll Road)

The operator of the Indiana Toll Road, Granger-based ITR Concession Co., is partnering with a northwest Indiana broadband provider to enable virtual learning for thousands of students. The company says it is giving La Porte-based Surf Broadband LLC free access to its fiber network to support e-learning for more than 7,000 Portage Township Schools students.

ITRCC says the partnership will help meet the demand for greater bandwidth and network capacity requirements. Due to the public health emergency, the district shifted to a virtual learning environment for the first quarter of the 2020-2021 school year.

“ITRCC and Surf Broadband came together in partnership to provide Portage Township Schools with an ideal solution that addressed our immediate need for broadband connectivity as well as preparing our schools for a dynamically changing, technology-rich future,” said David Lesich, PTS director of instructional technology and data services.

ITRCC says its newly-constructed fiber network in northern Indiana allows Surf Broadband to deliver network connectivity at a rapid pace.

“Working with and connecting to the ITRCC network dramatically reduced the timeline for bringing increased bandwidth and capacity to the District,” said Surf Broadband President Gene Crusie. “Other options we considered would have taken significantly longer to complete and would have resulted in limited additional capacity for the extreme demands of the new school year.”

ITRCC says Surf Broadband will transition connectivity to the toll road commercial fiber network when construction is completed later this year.