Looking at ISPs for the next 3 years, what are you takes on the following companies?

[paulellam]

We haver RM and very little issues for the last three years.

[RM_Broadband]

Hi @SteveHill, sorry to hear your schools have had problems with their service. Can I check that the problems you mention have been resolved? I'd be more than happy to have one our UK Support team drop you a call to discuss the problems in more detail and also capture any feedback you may have as it's important to us that our customers get the best possible service that they can.

 

Feel free to PM me your details and I'll arrange the appropriate person to get in touch, alternatively I'd be more than happy to arrange a time to discuss your feedback in more detail.

 

Kevin, Product Manager - Connectivity

[Opendium_Steve]

Hi @SteveHill, sorry to hear your schools have had problems with their service. Can I check that the problems you mention have been resolved? I'd be more than happy to have one our UK Support team drop you a call to discuss the problems in more detail and also capture any feedback you may have as it's important to us that our customers get the best possible service that they can.

 

The only outstanding problem we've got at the moment is one customer who has asked for firewall rules to be relaxed across their network (customer has their own firewall and filter and is using RM purely as an ISP, not for filtering), and RM support have said they wont do this. I can certainly put you in touch with my colleague that is dealing with the customer in question.

 

However, as a more general criticism, our customers who are using RM connections seem to have significantly more ISP-side problems than those using other ISPs, and getting problems resolved seems to be much harder with RM, usually involving weeks of back-and-forth with RM support.

 

I can't comment on the reliability of RM's filtering vs. the filtering offered by other ISPs, but for simple internet connectivity (with the school running their own filters) I'm afraid this has been our experience.

[AlanD]

We've just signed up with Virgin. They offer various packages to schools and one infant school has opted for a 350mbps solution (20:1 contention ratio) for £ 65 per month. Virgin has stated that the minimum they will receive is 18mbps

We use Virgin - originally installed as a backup line. It was 200Mb/s - and during the day time it was rarely less than that - and when it was - I don't think I ever saw less than 180Mb/s. Little evidence of contention during the day - because daytime that is not the problem for ISPs. Upload is not so good - around 15MB/s (although its what they say it will be).....fttc offers better at 20Mb/s. We use it for BYOD now - and typically our demand is under 100Mb/s. Not tested it since 350Mb/s product came through. Virgin has come in for some criticism on BBC Watchdog - because of massive over contention in some city areas....but they say they are working to correct this.

[GrumbleDook]

It seems that some folk are happy with asynchronous lines ... how many people feel that they could manage on asynchronous lines?

[Fazza]

It seems that some folk are happy with asynchronous lines ... how many people feel that they could manage on asynchronous lines?

 

We download significantly more than we upload so as long as the download speed was pretty much guaranteed I think we could.

[sparkeh]

We download significantly more than we upload so as long as the download speed was pretty much guaranteed I think we could.

Same here, async is fine for us at the moment.

[synaesthesia]

Couldn't do async for our secondary as we host much of our own stuff. Not a problem for the primaries though, upload speed isn't anywhere near as in demand. It's swinging a little in that direction though with content being sent from site to cloud storage."Cloud" backup is also becoming popular also which would affect any decisions there.

[IrritableTech]

Our primaries all use asynchronous lines and have never had an issue with upload speed really. None of them host anything, and any off site backups are done overnight.

 

We host a few bits here ourselves so a synchronous line is pretty much required.

[localzuk]

We use async lines with all our primaries (they're all quite small). Our Middle schools have full leased lines though.

 

We manage with that on our WAN too - with files DFS'ing from the primaries to the main site. So, upload is important, but when you look at its actual usage, it just isn't all that high.

[nicholab]

500/165Mbps upload and 1Gbps/220Mbps FTTP-on-Demand product would be fine here.

[nathan]

@synaesthesia,

 

we'll have Dark Fibre connectivity available at the end of the year. We are currently trialling this with BT Openreach and carrier partners. If you wanted to trial this for us then it's something we could probably do. I expect we'll be able to offer 10Gbit bearer connections nationwide very soon and it won't just be to where the smaller carriers (i.e City Fibre) has their network. it will be UK wide.

 

We're working on the process for upgrading current customers lines from a BT EAD based circuit to true Dark fibre (take BT's equipment off it and putting ours on the end instead) and we'll announce this once it's been finalised.

 

yes we've had some problems with hosted Lightspeed but not for the majority of customers plus we've a new solution just around the corner to resolve any previous issues. Again we're looking for beta testers for this too over the summer holidays.

 

Ref the backup that doesn't sound right. I'll give you a call.

 

Thanks

 

Dave

 

@SchoolsBroadband

 

 

I believe one of our large primaries are coming up to the end of their contract, is there still the opportunity to trial the Dark Fibre product or at least find some more information about it?

Edited August 4, 2017 by nathan

[nathan]

oh and will this have any effect?

 

https://arstechnica.co.uk/tech-policy/2017/07/ofcoms-dark-fibre-rules-quashed-rare-bt-win/

[nathan]

oh and will this have any effect?

 

https://arstechnica.co.uk/tech-policy/2017/07/ofcoms-dark-fibre-rules-quashed-rare-bt-win/

 

Just had conformation that this has but dark fibre in a bit of a limbo.

[SchoolsBroadband]

hi @nathan,

 

unfortunately the Competition Appeals Tribunal has halted Ofcoms ruling to force BT openreach into launching a Dark Fibre product.

 

City Fibre, Virgin media and other altnets will be breathing a big sigh of relief.

 

UPD BT Stall Ofcom Dark Fibre and 2016 Business Connectivity Review Changes - ISPreview UK

 

 

personally I think its a real shame the CAT have got in the way of revolutionising Internet connectivity across the UK. My sources tell me this will probably push things back 6 - 9 months so in reality that'll mean UK wide Dark Fibre from BT in September 2018.

 

lets wait and see what happens and I'll keep you all updated.

 

Dave

[Jehanzeb]

We're with RM and hardly have had any issues, infact I find their support really good. Though I would like to have higher bandwidth with competitive pricing

 

Kindest regards

 

J.

[Zoom7000]

I'd advise taking a look at LGfL TRUSTnet. They are the largest supplier of broadband to the majority of schools across London and they have historically been very good both in service and support and the new CEO of LGfL is bringing in some really positive change and cost saving options for schools. TRUSTnet is now available to schools outside of London and I would definitely recommed taking a look.

[nicholab]

I'd advise taking a look at LGfL TRUSTnet. They are the largest supplier of broadband to the majority of schools across London and they have historically been very good both in service and support and the new CEO of LGfL is bringing in some really positive change and cost saving options for schools. TRUSTnet is now available to schools outside of London and I would definitely recommed taking a look.

 

Yes but getting ports opened is a real pain! They also removed the option of just internet connection no port blocking.

[Zoom7000]

Yes but getting ports opened is a real pain! They also removed the option of just internet connection no port blocking.

 

Port opening is a doddle if you ask me? Just fill out a MIP request spreadsheet and then it's open within a few minutes.

 

Also, just checked the Atomwide Support Site, the "just internet connection" is still there, it's under My Account > Declaration management > LGfL 2.0: Change to self-managed 'Option 2' connection

Edited August 6, 2017 by Zoom7000

[SchoolsBroadband]

so you can't open ports or change security settings yourself????

[Zoom7000]

so you can't open ports or change security settings yourself????

 

You just love to hijack almost everything I post about LGfL don't you? [emoji19]

 

Re-read the post. You have an option to have an Internet connection which is controlled and managed by LGfL/Atomwide or have an "option 2" which you control.

 

Either way, you can open ports yourself, or you can request to have them opened for you.

[GrumbleDook]

Many RBCs and LA connections have similar ... you do have to ask and yes, there are time you have to show you are not a muppet due to some dreadful requests LAs and RBCs get.

[SchoolsBroadband]

You just love to hijack almost everything I post about LGfL don't you? [emoji19]

 

Re-read the post. You have an option to have an Internet connection which is controlled and managed by LGfL/Atomwide or have an "option 2" which you control.

 

Either way, you can open ports yourself, or you can request to have them opened for you.

 

my apologies I missed the first bit. I know it was a common complaint for many secondary schools that they couldn't manage their own UTM / firewall. I've nothing in particular against LGFL and have met the new CEO a few times who I prefer to the last.

 

Dave

[Zoom7000]

I've nothing in particular against LGFL and have met the new CEO a few times who I prefer to the last.

 

Finally, something we both agree on!

[SchoolsBroadband]

 

Dave