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West Virginia Buys $22K Routers With Stimulus, Puts Them In Small Schools

Posted by Soulskill on from the your-tax-dollars-at-work dept.

DesScorp writes "The Charleston Gazette is reporting that the state of West Virginia has purchased hundred of enterprise class routers from Cisco at over $22,000 dollars apiece via federal stimulus money. The stimulus cash was intended to spread broadband coverage. The problem is that the routers are overkill, and are being placed in small schools and libraries with just a handful of users. The West Virginia Office of Technology warned that the purchase was 'grossly oversized' for the intended uses, but the purchase went through anyway. Curiously, the project is being headed up not by the state's usual authorities on such matters, but by Jimmy Gianato, West Virginia's Homeland Security Chief. In addition to the $24 million contract signed with Verizon Network Integration to provide the routers and maintenance, Gianato asked for additional equipment and services that tacked an additional $2.26 million to the bill. Perhaps the worst part is that hundreds of the routers are sitting in their boxes, unused, two years after the purchase."

8 of 295 comments (clear)

  1. That hurts my stomach a little... by randombilly · · Score: 1, Funny

    Wow! Thats an enormous waste of money! They make $22,000 routers? What could they possibly do that like an Airport Extreme can't? heh.

    1. Re:That hurts my stomach a little... by StuartHankins · · Score: 3, Funny

      They come with a set of Monster Cables...

  2. WTF by bonch · · Score: 5, Funny

    The most hilarious part is when Gianaro defended it in the name of " equal opportunity"' : "A student in a school of 200 students should have the same opportunity as a student in a school with 2,000 students."

    WTF? Does he really thing the technology works like that...the bigger the router, the bigger the opportunity?

    1. Re:WTF by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Funny

      Worse, does he realize that students in 200-person schools now enjoy ten times as much router CPU time as the underprivileged students struggling in 2,000-person schools?

    2. Re:WTF by bonch · · Score: 5, Funny

      Fuck you, shill.

      Signed,
      Jimmy Gianato, West Virginia Homeland Security Chief

    3. Re:WTF by LordLimecat · · Score: 5, Funny

      Clearly, you havent seen the packets that come out of these routers. Theyre so crisp, so clean, the ones so sharp, the zeros so full bodied and round....

      I used to be a skeptic, but one day I broke down and decided to try the Cisco experience. I hooked my comcast modem's ethernet port up to a Cisco 3900, and that to a Catalyst 6513, and now I never have to experience low quality on youtube simply because someone only uploaded at 320p. Everything is so much cleaner, the sounds more audible, the content more enjoyable, even the slashdot comments have become wittier.

      Give it a try, you will be impressed.

  3. Re:How the money could better have been spent by PPH · · Score: 5, Funny

    this map

    Looks like the meme of the Internet routing around damage is alive and well.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  4. Most telling quote... by el+borak · · Score: 1, Funny

    "I'm not an expert on the technical side," [Gianato] said

    This from the man "who's leading the state broadband project".

    West Virginia. Wild and Wonderful.

    --
    An imperfect plan executed violently is far superior to a perfect plan. -- George Patton