• Note: "edgeBOX for schools" is now a dedicated school server known as "Education Appliance" (redesigned with new software and services and re-branded)
  
• Critical Links partners with Portugal Telecom to win highly competitive bid.
• education appliance™ providing schools with rich networking and IT services on scalable platforms, enabling the roll-out of next generation infrastructure

FAIRFIELD, NJ, November 12th, 2008 – Critical Links, a global provider of unified voice, data and IT solutions for SMBs, announced today that its education appliance™ solution is being deployed by Portugal Telecom for the Portuguese Ministry of Education’s initiative to execute one of the world’s largest “Digital School” modernization efforts. The education appliance will support the “Schools Local Area Networks Initiative” in 1,220 Portuguese schools.

The Portugal Telecom led consortia won the Portuguese Ministry of Education bid for the first phase of the ambitious Government program to roll out Ethernet and Wi-Fi local area networks, network services and network management to all high schools in Portugal. The program will subsequently provide Portuguese schools with a number of communications and IT services including e-learning, school/class management, scheduling, training and certification.

Portugal Telecom is a global telecommunications operator and the Portuguese market leader. The company’s activity covers every segment of the telecommunications sector: fixed, mobile, multimedia, data and corporate solutions. Portugal Telecom Group is listed on the Lisbon and New York Stock Exchanges. It serves about 35 million domestic and international clients.

“The edgeBOX solution was selected by Portugal Telecom in a highly competitive bid”, stated João Carreira, CEO, Critical Links. “Schools worldwide are increasingly requiring a sophisticated IT and Telecom infrastructure to provide an enriching learning environment without the usual costs associated with supporting such an infrastructure. The education appliance precisely addresses this requirement – delivering the functionality at the lowest price point. In addition, the edgeBOX delivers high scalability, and flexibility, protecting the investment for years to come. The edgeBOX also offers education specific edgePACKs – value-added applications for a learning environment that are integrated with other functions. Altogether, we strongly believe that the education appliance offers unparalleled value to the education vertical. We are excited by this opportunity to demonstrate that.”

As a single box solution, education appliance features advanced networking technologies normally only found in much larger and more expensive systems, including an IP-PBX, VoIP gateway, WiFi access point, 3G broadband support and the latest security systems. Services such as DHCP, NAT and DNS enable seamless integration with any type of network and simplify administration tasks. WiFi support also enables instant deployment of integrated network hot-spots and of LANs at “Greenfield” sites. Remote management is achieved through a single web-based, user-friendly interface, which controls all the features of education appliance and can be accessed on-site or remotely by a dedicated team in a central location. The education appliance is available on a range of scalable platforms.

About Critical Links

Critical Links is a pioneer in delivering innovative ICT infrastructure solutions for Schools 2.0—the next generation of Schools. Critical Links’ School 2.0 portfolio provides the learning, networking, and administration capabilities necessary for delivering a highly collaborative and interactive educational experience. In addition it also strives to dramatically simplify the administration of both the IT and data infrastructure of schools.

The Critical Links Education Appliance is the flagship product of the School 2.0 portfolio and can support up to 3000 students. It has been deployed at over 1200 schools in the world’s largest school modernization program and has been recognized with numerous industry awards. 

Critical Links is an active member of the Intel Learning Series alliance and is also a Microsoft Gold Partner.

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