Connecting the College Campus: FirstLight Fiber's Services Enhance Hudson Valley Community College

To address its growing bandwidth needs, Hudson Valley Community College (HVCC), the second-largest institution of higher learning in the Capital Region of New York State, has opted for FirstLight’s fiber-based Internet and Ethernet Private Line (EPL) services. FirstLight provides Internet connectivity to HVCC’s 120-acre main campus, while its Ethernet service provides dedicated, point-to-point, scalable connectivity from two of the college’s satellite campuses and two Educational Opportunity Centers (EOC) campuses back to the main campus.

Hudson Valley Community College first tapped FirstLight in 2013, when FirstLight installed a dedicated fiber link between the HVCC and University at Albany college campuses, allowing the schools to share data center services.

“In response to the increasing and redundant Internet demands and future needs of the College, it was crucial for us to find a service provider who could offer exceptional products as well as a higher level of service from a quality and responsiveness perspective,” commented Sarah Garrand, Interim Chief Information Officer for Hudson Valley Community College. “FirstLight met all of those requirements, including providing the campus with a redundant Internet solution. The infrastructure, the quality and the speed we are observing now is vastly improved in comparison to our previous connection. The whole experience with FirstLight has been a very positive one, and I would recommend their services to other institutions.”

“Serving the communications needs of an institution as highly accredited as Hudson Valley Community College is a great privilege for FirstLight and is consistent with our mission to improve connectivity options for businesses and enhance the learning environments of educational institutions throughout the Capital Region and Northern New England,” stated Kurt Van Wagenen, President and CEO of FirstLight.

Hudson Valley Community College serves approximately 12,000 students each semester, and employs more than 650 full- and part-time faculty members.

FirstLight provides a comprehensive portfolio of secure, scalable telecommunications solutions and knowledgeable staff experienced in working with K-12 districts, colleges and universities to support advanced voice/VoIP, multicast, video and distance learning applications for single and multisite institutions.

To learn more about FirstLight, visit www.firstlight.net.