Recommend me a Broadband Provider for a school

[soveryapt]

I know this is something that comes up a lot, but hey, I thought I'd ask the question again with my specifics.

 

We're looking at Broadband provision now at the school and what not. Probably looking towards FTTC and getting away from our Radio Link now that we're able to get decent speeds through UG feeds.

 

Ideally we need to be getting at least 10mb both ways on the line (this is what we currently get provided - well, meant to get). With this we'll need filtering, that we have control over - including ports and such for ideas going forward (i.e. non of this you can get things unblocked if you beg at the right time of the month with a blue moon shining by the noon day sun malarky *coughs* CLEO *coughs*). We could also do with inclusive AntiVirus protection as well.

 

E-mails will be looked after by going to Office 365 and web hosting will be sorted out as well independently.

 

The other main thing is to have a company that is fairly local to the school for any support and such, which is in Oswaldtwistle - Lancashire. If you know of any providers that meet all this then I'd love to hear from you, if you are a provider and want more information, please PM me and I'll do my best.

 

Thanks all

Andy

[XiJ]

Talk to Dave at @SchoolsBroadband on here. Can't tag / link him on my phone but they should be able to do all you require!

 

J

Edited December 18, 2013 by XiJ

[glennda]

Personally I recommend ZEN internet.

 

What yo need to be sure about the SLA around FTTC, becuase as fair as I am aware it is the same as ADSL (i.e could be forever to fix). Ideally you want to be going EFM for the SLA if no fiber is present.

[Quackers]

Personally I recommend ZEN internet.

 

I second this, we moved from LEA broadband to Zen 3 years ago, best move we ever did.

[glennda]

I second this, we moved from LEA broadband to Zen 3 years ago, best move we ever did.

 

The Support is 2nd to none, when you ring up you a talking to somebody who does actually know what they are talking about. they are based in Rochdale.

 

EDIT: changed to make sense!

Edited December 18, 2013 by glennda

[Quackers]

The Support is 2nd to none, when you ring up you a talking to somebody who doesn't actually know what they are talking about. they are based in Rochdale.

 

Think you mean does not doesn't

[soveryapt]

The Support is 2nd to none, when you ring up you a talking to somebody who doesn't actually know what they are talking about. they are based in Rochdale.

 

Think you mean does not doesn't

 

It's to be hoped so! lol ..

 

Thanks all

[glennda]

Think you mean does not doesn't

 

Woops changed - too used to writing the opposite for BT

[soveryapt]

Woops changed - too used to writing the opposite for BT

 

I hear you on that one! GAH!

[IrritableTech]

Why do you want a local provider? If you're looking at FTTC it's a BT product and the ISP isn't going to be able to fix it - they'll just send BT.

 

Early on in the decision making process you need to decide if you want a one stop shop provider who has created a package to cover most (all?) of your needs, or if you want build your own provision. Then you can compare apples with apples. It's often easier (especially in your absence) if there is a single provider to call if something has gone wrong.

 

For the record we are now using Schools Broadband on a 100mbit fibre, using their hosted environment. Our partner primaries will be going live on their FTTC connections in the new year.