As part of the existing cable franchise, Lexington is provided with an institutional network (i-net). This is a third cable, separate from the residential A&B wires, which connects all municipal offices, libraries and schools. There is an i-net cable drop in every school classroom.
With NSF grant money, Bolt Beranek & Newman (BBN) is helping connect this i-net to the Internet.
On the technical side, this involved :
The basic system is up and running, with a first goal to support educational use in a K-12 setting. Of course, most of the schools don't have modern computers, let alone LANS...
Meanwhile folks in town are working on a broad set of issues: defining educational goals, how to provide training & support, what is a long-range vision for town-wide use beyond the schools, community access, residential inclusion, etc.
When you see a Macintosh on the Internet, running Mosaic at 10 megabits/second over existing cable TV facilities, wow, what a fantastic resource - a high speed Internet jack in every classroom !
Last update: March 12, 1995