Gibson335 Posted October 14, 2015 Posted October 14, 2015 Just want to get a feel for who will be renewing their existing emPSN contract - especially those who use Capita for services. We're considering dumping leased line, having dual FTTC and doing the services ourselves.
JonThompson Posted October 14, 2015 Posted October 14, 2015 Just want to get a feel for who will be renewing their existing emPSN contract - especially those who use Capita for services. We're considering dumping leased line, having dual FTTC and doing the services ourselves. We only use emPSN for Internet and DNS now. We've dumped OpenHive and filter with Lightspeed. We also have a 50meg Virgin Media fibre for staff and to act as a lifeboat. We'll probably move over to them (prob go 100meg and ADSL backup) when our emPSN contract is up for renewal as since Capita took over the service has been shocking to say the least. 1
SchoolsBroadband Posted October 14, 2015 Posted October 14, 2015 Hi all, we had over 200 schools move to us when the contact initially came up and we've had a few dozen more in Leicester and Leicestershire over the past month or so join us rather than renewing. If you'd like a quote do send me a PM as I guarantee we'll be more reliable that what you've had and for a much better price inc Lightspeed too. Ta Dave
sparkeh Posted October 15, 2015 Posted October 15, 2015 We left years ago when embed changed to emPSN and haven't looked back 1
Gibson335 Posted October 15, 2015 Author Posted October 15, 2015 Anyone using Capital Bytes, F1, Ark, or Wave 9 rather than Capita? Opinions if so? Cheers.
Jobos Posted October 15, 2015 Posted October 15, 2015 Both of my schools use Capital Bytes but it's not without its faults but on the whole it is far better than Capita’s filter. We have local control and find it easier to block or more frequently unblock sites. Local control also allows us to get a list of blocked sites that have been accessed which is useful when fault finding why some sites or iPad apps don’t work as expected. Staff love being able to get on Youtube without logging in to the filter every 30 minutes yet it’s still blocked for students. We had many problems with Capita before but Capital Bytes makes things a lot easier. That said this term we have seen a slowdown of the filter as I suspect more and more schools are using them and producing a bottleneck. What I would like is a local box to run the filtering something like smoothwall but that's out of our budget. 1
Gibson335 Posted October 15, 2015 Author Posted October 15, 2015 I have to say, I didn't think it was possible, but Capita's new support system appears to be worse than the old one - or, perhaps it's the people responsible. I've now had an outstanding ticket for 30 working days, with no contact from them for 10 of them...and that was only in response to my prodding.
JonThompson Posted October 15, 2015 Posted October 15, 2015 I have to say, I didn't think it was possible, but Capita's new support system appears to be worse than the old one - or, perhaps it's the people responsible. I've now had an outstanding ticket for 30 working days, with no contact from them for 10 of them...and that was only in response to my prodding. And they wonder why they lose custom and people hate them? They do seem to be very poor on the support front.
EXA_Mark Posted October 20, 2015 Posted October 20, 2015 Like our friends @SchoolsBroadband we too moved about 350 schools from what was EMBC three or four years ago, and have continued to add more each time the contract comes up. If you'd like to speak to ANY of our schools near you, or our partners who specialise in services such as SIMS or IT support just PM me and I'm happy to help in any way I can.
Wave9_Lee Posted October 22, 2015 Posted October 22, 2015 Hi Jobos, we provide a range of broadband and filtering solutions including on-premise filtering and security for improved control and flexibility. We provide integration and a range of other IT services too, and have excellent support. If you want a local box, we'd be happy to provide you with some info and quotes. Feel free to drop me a PM. East Midlands references available on request! Cheers Lee
bitznpcz Posted November 17, 2015 Posted November 17, 2015 I'm also looking into the options for connectivity, email and filtering and came across this post. I support 10 schools (a mix of infants and primaries) and the KCOM renewals are starting to come through. It appears that KCOM are the only choice if we are to remain in the EMPSN as Virgin is not an option in most of Chesterfield. An example quote is: FTTC connection and setup fee of £1706 plus ongoing rental of £1939 per annum, for an estimated upload bandwidth of 10Mbps and an estimated download bandwidth of 39Mbps. This is for a 3 year contract. Could @Wav9_Lee, @exa_mark & @SchoolsBroadband please PM me with an approximate price for connectivity, filtering and Office365 (where applicable). All of my schools currently use KCOM for connectivity, 1 uses RM for eMail, 9 use Capita for Office365, 2 use RM for filtering, 1 uses CapitalBytes and 7 use Capita. Are there any other suppliers you would recommend - particularly interested to hear from users in the East Midlands/EMBC/EMPSN area. Thanks, Kevin 3
ITGURU Posted November 17, 2015 Posted November 17, 2015 We currently take both connection and filtering from the LA. However, next year I am moving filtering away from them and going in-house keeping the connection through emPSN. Yje majority of issues we ever have are LA Proxy servers, and not emPSN/KCOM. We have a 100meg symmetrical circuit and to take the connection on from another supplier is not cost effective and within budget so we'll be staying with them for now. Our daily average broadband speed at peak times is 40-50mb/s . I got a quote for the bottlerocket which was way out of our price range, so going with Censornet. Capital bytes was the cheapest option but just an updated version of the netsweeper we currently use.
SchoolsBroadband Posted November 18, 2015 Posted November 18, 2015 I'm also looking into the options for connectivity, email and filtering and came across this post. I support 10 schools (a mix of infants and primaries) and the KCOM renewals are starting to come through. It appears that KCOM are the only choice if we are to remain in the EMPSN as Virgin is not an option in most of Chesterfield. An example quote is: FTTC connection and setup fee of £1706 plus ongoing rental of £1939 per annum, for an estimated upload bandwidth of 10Mbps and an estimated download bandwidth of 39Mbps. This is for a 3 year contract. Could @Wav9_Lee, @exa_mark & @SchoolsBroadband please PM me with an approximate price for connectivity, filtering and Office365 (where applicable). All of my schools currently use KCOM for connectivity, 1 uses RM for eMail, 9 use Capita for Office365, 2 use RM for filtering, 1 uses CapitalBytes and 7 use Capita. Are there any other suppliers you would recommend - particularly interested to hear from users in the East Midlands/EMBC/EMPSN area. Thanks, Kevin PM'd thanks for getting in touch.
Wave9_Lee Posted November 18, 2015 Posted November 18, 2015 Thanks for the enquiry - check your inbox, cheers Lee
EXA_Mark Posted November 20, 2015 Posted November 20, 2015 I'm also looking into the options for connectivity, email and filtering and came across this post. I support 10 schools (a mix of infants and primaries) and the KCOM renewals are starting to come through. It appears that KCOM are the only choice if we are to remain in the EMPSN as Virgin is not an option in most of Chesterfield. An example quote is: FTTC connection and setup fee of £1706 plus ongoing rental of £1939 per annum, for an estimated upload bandwidth of 10Mbps and an estimated download bandwidth of 39Mbps. This is for a 3 year contract. Could @Wav9_Lee, @exa_mark & @SchoolsBroadband please PM me with an approximate price for connectivity, filtering and Office365 (where applicable). All of my schools currently use KCOM for connectivity, 1 uses RM for eMail, 9 use Capita for Office365, 2 use RM for filtering, 1 uses CapitalBytes and 7 use Capita. Are there any other suppliers you would recommend - particularly interested to hear from users in the East Midlands/EMBC/EMPSN area. Thanks, Kevin Hi Kevin, thanks for asking, and happy to send. Sorry for delayed response I've been out for a few days, but you will have a quote across in you inbox today. If you would like to speak to any of our schools that moved from EMPSN/EMPC just let me know, I am sure we will have some near you.
ITGURU Posted November 20, 2015 Posted November 20, 2015 PM'd thanks for getting in touch. Hi We are in east Midlands and currently use KCOM/emPSN along with LCC for filtering. However, due to decline in server reliability and customer service we are moving over to Censornet in-house for both web and email filtering. We will be staying on the emPSN network, however I don't know what the cost for the connection is as not paid directly out of the schools budget, but may be due to change in October 2016. We are on a 100meg fibre circuit (symmetrical) and last time I got a quote it seemed expensive, but as I say until next year I don't know what KCOMs price will be in comparison.
Wave9_Lee Posted November 30, 2015 Posted November 30, 2015 KCOM Group Moots Sale of UK Network Assets Outside of East Yorkshire - ISPreview UK
SchoolsBroadband Posted November 30, 2015 Posted November 30, 2015 Interesting....... Think I'll get in touch with our account manager and see what's on offer....
Jobos Posted December 2, 2015 Posted December 2, 2015 Both of my schools have said emPSN are finishing soon so have passed it to me to sort out. I didn't think they are finishing just renewing contracts. The LA will be sending the new prices out soon but I expect it will have a long tie-in like the current contract that is 3 years. What broadband providers are other primaries using these days? We are on a 10Mb line which can be slow when a whole class use online resources so was thinking of something a little faster. Please feel free to PM with prices guys!
SchoolsBroadband Posted December 2, 2015 Posted December 2, 2015 Both of my schools have said emPSN are finishing soon so have passed it to me to sort out. I didn't think they are finishing just renewing contracts. The LA will be sending the new prices out soon but I expect it will have a long tie-in like the current contract that is 3 years. What broadband providers are other primaries using these days? We are on a 10Mb line which can be slow when a whole class use online resources so was thinking of something a little faster. Please feel free to PM with prices guys! that depends what speed you want I'll send you a PM Thanks Dave 1
Gibson335 Posted December 2, 2015 Author Posted December 2, 2015 Both of my schools have said emPSN are finishing soon so have passed it to me to sort out. I didn't think they are finishing just renewing contracts. The LA will be sending the new prices out soon but I expect it will have a long tie-in like the current contract that is 3 years. What broadband providers are other primaries using these days? We are on a 10Mb line which can be slow when a whole class use online resources so was thinking of something a little faster. Please feel free to PM with prices guys! emPSN are not finishing - as you say, it's just time for contract renewal. Current renewal quotes are for 3 years. Be careful if you think you may need to move above 100Mbps, because if your current bearer is not capable of extending beyond that, then the up-front costs can be very high indeed.
Jobos Posted December 2, 2015 Posted December 2, 2015 emPSN are not finishing - as you say, it's just time for contract renewal. Current renewal quotes are for 3 years. Be careful if you think you may need to move above 100Mbps, because if your current bearer is not capable of extending beyond that, then the up-front costs can be very high indeed. 100Mbs... that's the stuff dreams are made of
SchoolsBroadband Posted December 2, 2015 Posted December 2, 2015 100Mbs... that's the stuff dreams are made of you'd be surprised how affordable 100Mbit is now
Jobos Posted December 7, 2015 Posted December 7, 2015 So chances are we will be sourcing our broadband from one of the providers who have already kindly supplied a price but in moving from Kcom to a different supplier does that mean we will lose our connection with emPSN and if so does it matter? Apart from some online freebies and the monthly newsletter I don't think we get any benefit from being part of emPSN.
sparkeh Posted December 8, 2015 Posted December 8, 2015 does that mean we will lose our connection with emPSN Yes and if so does it matter? Not that we've noticed.
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