CANUTILLO, Texas (KFOX14/CBS4) — A school district in the Borderland is celebrating the fact that students are one step closer to having access to high-speed, reliable internet.
On Wednesday, the Canutillo Independent School District held a groundbreaking ceremony as it will start installing lines for a Wide Area Network (WAN), a new private fiber network that is said to provide fast, private and uninterrupted internet to all schools and offices in the district.
The company providing the infrastructure is WANRACK, while the internet service will be provided by the company United Data Technologies (UDT), a national technology solutions provider.
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The project is said to be paid for by a $4 million federal grant, called “E-rate,” which is meant to help schools and libraries in the country modernize.
“It’s going to put the district on a private network, so for the students and the staff it’ll be safer, it’s faster, it’s more secure, and the best part is that it was fully paid for by the grants,” said Jack Maddox, the director of business development for WANRACK.
The new internet is set to power virtual classrooms and other digital learning tools, which Maddox hopes the district adds more as they know they have the infrastructure for it.
Jack Maddox, the director of business development for WANRACK and Andrea Kaufman, the pre-sales consultant for UDT. Aug. 26, 2026. Credit: KFOX14/CBS4
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“Something like this gives the district the backbone infrastructure to add as much technology into the future as it needs,” Maddox said.
The Canutillo ISD Superintendent Josue Borrego said the uses of the network extend beyond the classroom to make campuses safer, saying that ID tags and background checks also depend on fast and reliable connectivity.
Canutillo ISD Superintendent Josue Borrego. Aug. 26, 2026. Credit: KFOX14/CBS4
Borrego said the project is expected to be completed by the summer of 2027.
The groundbreaking ceremony was held at the Canutillo Middle School STEAM Academy, located on 7311 Bosque Rd. in Canutillo, which is said to become the hub for the network.
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