LAKE CITY, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 18, 2025--
Gateway Fiber’s E-Rate division WANRack, a leading provider of custom fiber networks for K‑12 school districts nationwide, joined Columbia County School District and United Data Technologies on December 2 to break ground on a dedicated private fiber Wide Area Network (WAN) that will connect every school in the district. The new infrastructure is designed to deliver scalable bandwidth, robust security, and rock-solid reliability to classrooms across Columbia County.
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“What a great day for Columbia County Schools,” said CCSD Superintendent Keith Couey in a district press release. “This network will ensure our teachers and students have the connectivity to empower excellence in the classroom. I want to thank UDT, WANRack, and the State of Florida for delivering the future of education for our district. We are now at the forefront of innovation in the connectivity space, and I know our students will feel the positive effects.”
Transforming Connectivity for CCSD
The private fiber WAN will ensure that students in Columbia County’s rural and more densely populated areas have the same high-speed, low-latency access to digital learning tools, virtual classrooms, and cloud-based resources.
“Today marks the day we start building a multi-lane superhighway for learning,” said Patrick Mitchell, Director of Technology Infrastructure and Networking, CCSD. “This dedicated, private fiber network is one of the most important infrastructure decisions this district will make for a generation. Columbia County is diverse, and true equity means ensuring that a student in our most rural school has the exact same access and latency as a student in the most populated area.”
By moving to a purpose-built network, the district is improving uptime, reducing congestion, and creating a platform that can support growing bandwidth needs for years to come. Leveraging federal funding and state construction support, the project also positions CCSD to reduce long-term connectivity costs while expanding educational opportunity.
WANRack’s Role and Perspective
As the project’s engineering and construction partner, WANRack is designing and building a custom, high-capacity fiber architecture tailored to CCSD’s instructional and operational priorities. The network will follow WANRack’s dedicated “homerun” fiber design, delivering resilient, scalable connectivity from each school site back to the district hub to support advanced applications, security systems, and future technology initiatives.
“For more than a decade, we’ve been building custom, high-capacity fiber networks for schools, municipalities, and businesses nationwide,” said Denice Weybrew, Director of Business Development at WANRack. “We’re excited to bring that experience to Columbia County and help its teachers and students succeed. This new fiber network will give the district’s schools the reliable connectivity and security they need to thrive for years to come.”
WANRack’s long track record of building private fiber WANs for school districts nationwide helps ensure the Columbia County project is both future-proof and cost-effective.
Partnership and Community Impact
The groundbreaking marks a major milestone in a public‑private partnership among CCSD, UDT, and WANRack, aligning district leadership, technology experts, and community stakeholders around a shared vision for equity and innovation. District leaders have emphasized that the private fiber network will permanently close internal connectivity gaps, ensuring that location within the county no longer limits a student’s access to digital tools or learning opportunities. Beyond classrooms, the upgraded network will also bolster workforce development initiatives and community programs that depend on robust, secure connectivity.
About WANRack
Gateway Fiber’s E-Rate division, WANRack, specializes in providing private fiber optic WAN solutions for K-12 school districts across the United States, offering lit and dark fiber as well as special construction options that align with E-Rate and other funding programs. Headquartered in Lenexa, Kansas, WANRack’s engineering-led approach focuses on secure, scalable, and cost‑effective networks that provide school districts with long-term control over their connectivity. Since its founding in 2013, WANRack has installed over 230 fiber WANs (private and open access networks) across 26 states. For more information, visit wanrack.com.
On December 2, representatives from WANRack, UDT, and Columbia County School District broke ground on construction of a new fiber internet infrastructure to link all of the district schools on a private high-speed network.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran fired more missiles at Israel and Gulf Arab states Thursday, demonstrating Tehran’s continued ability to strike its neighbors even as U.S. President Donald Trump claimed the threat from the country was nearly eliminated.
Iran’s attacks on Gulf states along with its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz have disrupted the world’s energy supplies with effects far beyond the Middle East. That has proved to be Iran’s greatest strategic advantage in the war. Britain planned to hold a call with nearly three dozen countries about how to reopen the strait once the fighting is over.
Trump has insisted the strait can be taken by force — but said it is not up to the U.S. to do that. In an address to the American people Wednesday night, he encouraged countries that depend on oil from Hormuz to “build some delayed courage” and go “take it.”
Before the U.S. and Israel started the war on Feb. 28 with strikes on Iran, the waterway was open to traffic and 20% of all traded oil used passed through it.
Iran responded defiantly to Trump’s speech, in which the American president claimed U.S. military action had been so decisive that “one of the most powerful countries” is “really no longer a threat.”
A spokesman for Iran’s military, Lt. Col. Ebrahim Zolfaghari, insisted Thursday that Tehran maintains hidden stockpiles of arms, munitions and production facilities. He said facilities targeted so far by U.S. strikes are “insignificant.”
Just before Trump began his address — in which he said U.S. “core strategic objectives are nearing completion” — explosions were heard in Dubai as air defenses worked to intercept an Iranian missile barrage.
Less than a half-hour after the president was done, Israel said its military was also working to intercept incoming missiles. Sirens sounded in Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, immediately after the speech.
Attacks continued across Iran on Thursday, with strikes reported in multiple cities.
In Lebanon — home to Iran-backed Hezbollah militants who are fighting Israel, which has launched a ground invasion — an Israeli strike killed four people in the south, the Health Ministry said.
More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran during the war, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel. More than two dozen people have died in Gulf states and the occupied West Bank, while 13 U.S. service members have been killed.
More than 1,200 people have been killed and more than 1 million displaced in Lebanon. Ten Israeli soldiers have also died there.
Iranian attacks on about two dozen commercial ships, and the threat of more, have halted nearly all traffic in the waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the open ocean.
Since March 1, traffic through the strait has dropped 94% over the same period last year, according to the Lloyds List Intelligence shipping data firm. Two ships are confirmed to have paid a fee, the firm said, while others were allowed through based on agreements with their home governments.
In order to bypass Hormuz, Saudi Arabia has been piping more oil to a Red Sea port, and Iraq said Thursday that it had started to truck oil across Syria to the Mediterranean.
The 35 countries speaking Thursday, including all G7 industrialized democracies except the U.S., as well as the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, signed a declaration last month demanding Iran stop blocking the strait.
Thursday’s talks were focused on political and diplomatic measures, but British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said military planners from an unspecified number of countries will also plot ways to ensure security once fighting ends, including potential mine-clearing work and “reassurance” for commercial shipping.
No country appears willing to try to open the strait by force while the war is raging. French President Emmanuel Macron, while on a visit to South Korea, called a military operation to secure the waterway “unrealistic.”
But there is a concern that Iran might limit traffic through the waterway even after U.S. and Israeli attacks on it cease.
The idea of an international effort has echoes of the “coalition of the willing,” led by the U.K. and France, that was assembled to underpin Ukraine’s security in the event of a ceasefire in that war. The coalition is, in part, an attempt to demonstrate to Washington that Europe is doing more for its own security in the face of frequent criticism from Trump.
The conflict is driving up prices for oil and natural gas, roiling stock markets, pushing up the cost of gasoline and threatening to make a range of goods, including food, more expensive.
On Thursday, Brent crude, the international standard, rose again and was at $108 in spot trading, up about 50% from Feb. 28 when Israel and the U.S. started the war.
Though the oil and gas that typically transits the strait is primarily sold to Asian nations, Japan and South Korea were the only two countries from the region joining Thursday's call about the strait. The supply of jet fuel has also been interrupted by the conflict, with consequences for travel worldwide.
Weissert reported from Washington and Rising from Bangkok. Associated Press writer David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany, contributed to this story.
Mourners gather during a funeral procession for Alireza Tangsiri, head of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, and others killed in Israeli strikes in late March, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A firefighter extinguishes a car at the site of Israeli airstrikes, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
People take cover in a bomb shelter as air raid sirens warn of incoming Iranian missile strikes in Bnei Brak, Israel, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
Members from the Popular Mobilization Forces attend a funeral of fighters who were killed in a U.S. airstrike, in Tal Afar, Nineveh province, north of Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
Members from the Popular Mobilization Forces attend a funeral of fighters who were killed in a U.S. airstrike, in Tal Afar, Nineveh province, north of Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
The Indian flagged LPG carrier Jag Vasant transporting liquefied petroleum gas, is seen at the Mumbai Port in Mumbai, India, after it arrived clearing the Strait of Hormuz, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
President Donald Trump speaks about the Iran war from the Cross Hall of the White House on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)
President Donald Trump walks from the Blue Room to speak about the Iran war from the Cross Hall of the White House on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)
President Donald Trump speaks about the Iran war from the Cross Hall of the White House on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)
President Donald Trump speaks about the Iran war from the Cross Hall of the White House on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)
