Frontier Donates $100,000 in Telecommunications Equipment to RIT

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Maggie Wilderotter

Frontier Communications Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Maggie Wilderotter announced that the company has expanded its strategic partnership with Rochester Institute of Technology to work toward developing future telecommunications professionals.

Frontier is donating equipment to RIT’s electrical, computer and telecommunications engineering technology department. Valued at $100,000, the equipment and financial donation will be used in the Telecommunications Systems Laboratory in RIT’s College of Applied Science and Technology. The announcement came today at the Executive Leaders Network Luncheon at the Genesee Valley Club.

“Over the past year, Frontier has partnered with major vendors to upgrade RIT’s Telecommunications Systems Laboratory with state-of-the-art equipment. This important lab supports undergraduate and graduate telecommunications engineering technology programs,” says Wilderotter, who was the keynote speaker at the luncheon, sponsored by RIT’s E. Philip Saunders College of Business and supported by Frontier.

Frontier and its vendor partners, Actelis, Adtran, Calix and Cisco, provided the equipment featuring advanced switching and router system technologies. The RIT lab where the equipment will be installed is modeled after a telecommunications central office with a modular switching system and broadband, fiber, mobile and voice-over IP technologies.

The lab is designed for training students on a wide array of network technologies used in today’s telecommunications networks to provide customers with voice, data and video services. Frontier, working with its major vendors, will specifically be upgrading the Access and Core networks components of the lab, along with providing engineering design and installation support.

“We are very honored and grateful to have the opportunity to partner with a well-respected industry leader like Frontier,” says Fred Walker, dean of the College of Applied Science and Technology. “This generous gift will support the continued success of our students while helping to increase new program development, scholarship productivity and strategic progress.”

The equipment will be installed in late December in the telecommunications lab in the college’s McGowan Center for Telecommunications Innovation and Collaborative Research. In 2007, the McGowan Foundation donated equipment, documentation and artifacts from the archives of MCI founder William McGowan to provide students with a historical perspective of the telecommunications industry, says Mike Eastman, department chair of electrical, computer and telecommunications engineering technology.

“Frontier Corp. has been an extremely generous, long-time supporter of the telecommunications program with equipment donations and technical support,” says Eastman. “Our collaborative efforts will continue to provide students with practical laboratory experiences to significantly enhance their educational preparation.”

About RIT
Rochester Institute of Technology is internationally recognized for academic leadership in computing, engineering, imaging science, sustainability, and fine and applied arts, in addition to unparalleled support services for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. RIT enrolls 17,500 full- and part-time students in more than 200 career-oriented and professional programs, and its cooperative education program is one of the oldest and largest in the nation. For more than two decades, U.S. News & World Report has ranked RIT among the nation’s leading comprehensive universities. RIT is featured in The Princeton Review’s 2012 edition of The Best 376 Colleges as well as its Guide to 311 Green Colleges. The Fiske Guide to Colleges 2012 names RIT as a “Best Buy,” and The Chronicle of Higher Education recognizes RIT among the “Great Colleges to Work For 2011.”

About Frontier Communications
Frontier Communications Corp. is the largest provider of communications services focused upon rural America. It is included in the S&P 500 Index and offers voice, high-speed Internet, satellite video, wireless Internet data access, data security solutions, bundled offerings, specialized bundles for small businesses and home offices, and advanced business communications for medium and large businesses in 27 states and with approximately 14,900 employees. It has a 100 percent U.S.-based workforce. More information is available at the Frontier Communications website.