The ORION E-Rate Consortium intent is to deploy a fully managed lit fiber service (10 Gbps) to all consortium member district Network Operation Centers.

Smartcom Telephone, LLC has been selected to build and manage the lit fiber and 100 Gbps Dedicated Internet Access services.

Smartcom/ORION Features:

• Providing Internet Connectivity to 36 Member sites with 350,000+ Students (FY 2024-2025)
• Multiple 100 Gbps Fiber Backbone Ring Network
• 10 Gbps Dedicated Fiber Transport to each consortium member from Smartcom Telephone’s Data Center served from two Core Routers

Internet Features

• 2×100 Gbps Dedicated Internet Access Ports at Smartcom Telephone’s Data Center served by Diverse Fiber circuits and two Gateway Routers. This eliminates any single point of failure
• Optional DDoS Protection as-a-service to members via Smartcom’s 200 Gbps real-time DDoS Shield Protection Services
• Blended BGP IP-Transit/Internet Exchange Network Access
• Three geographically diverse Internet Exchange Point connections: San Jose, CA, Dallas, TX and Ashburn, VA, covering West Coast to East Coast providing high throughput and lower latency to common peers.
• Connections to 100+ Internet Exchange peers like: Microsoft, AWS, Google, Apple, Netflix, Akamai and others. Improved user experience through less hops and reduced latency.
• 200 Gbps Dedicated Private Network Interconnection to Google Network with dedicated access to Google Classroom, Meets, Applications and Youtube/Youtube.TV
• 100 Gbps Dedicated Private Network Interconnection to Apple, Inc.
• Co-location Services available to ORION members from Rio Grande City to Brownsville, TX with Tier-2 and Tier-3 ratings.