Concordia Parish school district builds tower to untangle Internet signals

By Vershal Hogan (Contact) | The Natchez Democrat

Published Tuesday, November 18, 2008

VIDALIA — It may look like a small cellular tower, but that’s not what work crews with a crane were building in the back parking lot of the Concordia Parish school district’s office Tuesday.

Instead, that tower is for wireless internet access.

The school system has had parish-wide internet access for several years, but the new tower is meant to help untangle a network of invisible signals, school district Management of Information Systems Supervisor Sam Matson said.

Currently, all of the schools in Vidalia have dishes that beam their wireless information to a dish on the Vidalia water tower, which in turn transmits that information to the school district’s central office.

The new tower will cut out that middle step.

“We wanted to get off the water tower in town and just beam straight to this (new) tower,” Matson said.

There are already existing towers at Vidalia High School and in Monterey.

The Monterey tower transmits to a dish on the Ferriday municipal water tower, and all of the Ferriday schools transmit to that dish as well. From there, the information will stream to the new tower.

“We are just kind of rearranging the way things are connecting,” Matson said.

That rearranging of how things are broadcast won’t mean that citizens outside of the school system will get free internet access, though.

“It’s a closed system,” Matson said.

The tower was acquired through the Federal Communication Commission’s E-Rate program, which is administered by the FCC’s Schools and Libraries Division.

The E-Rate program provides wireless internet access for low-income parishes.