Statewide Bank of Louisiana in Covington has agreed to use a data network operated by ERF Wireless Inc. to connect its remote branch locations.
ERF, of League City, Tex., is using wireless and fiber optic hardware to connect the bank's headquarters with its New Orleans and Baton Rouge locations. ERF is installing the gear on towers owned by the Louisiana State Police and on towers that it will build at Statewide Bank's sites.
"The secure network being constructed for the bank will not only save us more than $2 million in data communications, long distance, and courier costs over the next 10 years, it will also increase our bandwidth to individual branches nearly 20-fold," Ron Dinwiddie, Statewide's director of information technology, said in a press release issued Thursday. The network will also allow new digital services "such as voice-over-IP, video conferencing, remote document imaging, remote deposit by our commercial customers, item imaging, and branch capture," Mr. Dinwiddie said.
ERF put the value of the 10-year contract at more than $1 million. Mike Moehle, ERF's executive vice president of enterprise network services, said in the press release that counting pending sales, his company expects its Louisiana contracts to bring in more than $250 million over the next 10 years.
