Gov Commits Gigabit Broadband for All England Schools by 2025

[MatthewL]

Just seen this article.

 

One to keep an eye one.

[pete]

Spotted on Anme, so cross-posting.

 

Guidance was released today here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/meeting-digital-and-technology-standards-in-schools-and-colleges

 

Specifically: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/meeting-digital-and-technology-standards-in-schools-and-colleges/broadband-internet-standards-for-schools-and-colleges

 

Which sets the minimum for a secondary at 1Gbps and for a primary to 100Mbps down/30Mbps up.

[SpaceInvader83]

I'm trying to work out whether It sounds more like the secondary requirement being a 1Gbps bearer.

 

"Secondary schools, all-through schools and further education colleges should have a connection with the capacity to deliver 1Gbps download and upload speed."

[john]

I'm trying to work out whether It sounds more like the secondary requirement being a 1Gbps bearer.

 

"Secondary schools, all-through schools and further education colleges should have a connection with the capacity to deliver 1Gbps download and upload speed."

I'd agree with your reading as having the bearer at 1g means it's a Config change and pay a bit more to turn up faster in most cases.

 

Sometimes maybe new routers as some providers may issue a 1g bearer but only put kit that can take say 500m on it so always worth the question what max throughput will the router / firewall / filter cope with if its at max on day 1 you have a problem.

[SchoolsBroadband]

Hi everyone,

 

I've personally been on a steering committee in conjunction with the DFE at setting standards for broadband speeds so I'm very happy that the government is going to intervene and get fibre to the vast majority of schools around the UK in that timeframe.

 

Schools Broadband were part of the initial RGC project where a few hundred rural schools had FTTP installed via predominantly BT Openreach and the DFE / DCMS picked up the ECC charges. We connected over 50 schools using this project.

 

There is a replacement project for this about to be launched later this year where schools will be specifically targeted by the DFE saying they can get a free upgrade to FTTP which I'm hoping we'll be part of again.

 

DCMS has numerous ways of getting schools upgraded to fibre, some of this is LFFN, some of this is done off councils own backs and some of it will be similar to RGC.

 

Either way its great that they are doing this. We've seen some huge improvements for rural schools whose broadband was terrible in the past.

 

Well done DCMS and DFE I say and I look forward to see what else is coming later this year.

 

If anyone has terrible broadband and needs an upgrade to FTTP let me know as I've contacts at the DFE where I can put your schools name forward.

 

Dave

[KK20]

I know secondary schools who use 100/100 AND are on 365.... They might have had an upgrade as I havent been to an ANME meet for a while.

[mullet_man]

I know secondary schools who use 100/100 AND are on 365.... They might have had an upgrade as I havent been to an ANME meet for a while.

We were on a 100 up and down not long ago, it served us very well really considering.

[Mr.Ben]

We are already quite a way down this route for our primaries and are about to appoint a provider.

 

I still have concerns about FTTP's suitability for us (upload speeds, service levels and availability), so we are going with leased lines and using FTTP or FTTC as backup where needed.

 

The pricing difference for most of our schools between 200mbps and 1Gbps is less than £500 per annum, so in most cases we will be using 1Gbps and subsidising schools from central funds.

 

It's going to be quite a jump from 80/20 FTTC in both quality and price for schools but these DfE standards along with the need for reliability (as alarms, phones and all of our IT systems will run over it) make it something the schools can't really be critical about.

[Primus]

I'm trying to work out whether It sounds more like the secondary requirement being a 1Gbps bearer.

 

"Secondary schools, all-through schools and further education colleges should have a connection with the capacity to deliver 1Gbps download and upload speed."

 

I think that's an interpretation some might take, I don't think it's an interpretation that DfE intended but that's my personal opinion.

[Mr.Ben]

We were on a 100 up and down not long ago, it served us very well really considering.

I think 100 would be fine for a third of our primary schools, but for all of them it's such a small jump to 1Gb it seems a poor choice not to go with 1 Gbps - It's also going to open up more options for centralised infrastructure as well. Edited March 28, 2022 by Mr.Ben

[SchoolsBroadband]

The DFE do mean a full 1gbps up and down for secondary schools.

 

Eofttp is available with near enough the same sla as an ead based leased line.

 

Furthermore, I'm pretty sure there will be a new synchronous fttp from BT Openreach in the not so distant future (just as numerous other fttp providers already do synchronous).

 

Looking at our stats of the 2,000 or so schools we look after is to take fttp whenever you can get it as it comes in at a great price / performance point.

 

Dave

[hallb15]

What about the section that says "Schools and colleges should have a backup broadband connection to ensure resilience and maintain continuity of service"

 

I don't know of any primary schools that have a backup connection as the cost outweighs the risk, especially with the SLA with the ISP.

Is this the Yorkshireman in me not wanting to pay for something that won't be needed 99.9% of the time?

What do other schools do?

[Boredguy]

What about the section that says "Schools and colleges should have a backup broadband connection to ensure resilience and maintain continuity of service"

 

I don't know of any primary schools that have a backup connection as the cost outweighs the risk, especially with the SLA with the ISP.

Is this the Yorkshireman in me not wanting to pay for something that won't be needed 99.9% of the time?

What do other schools do?

 

We get a "free" ADSL backup via our provider, but we're still paying for the BT Landline it's plugged in to, but that phone (and a couple other ones) are also part of the emergency contingency plans in-case the PBX fails.

[Jawloms]

Always annoys me when they say "High Schools need...... and primaries need.......". It's not that simple. In Suffolk, and I am sure many other places, our biggest primary is larger than our smallest secondary. It should be more about number of kids if they want to make it really vague, but of course we all know it should be down to number of devices, what those devices are and what they're being used for.

[msi_school]

We get a "free" ADSL backup via our provider, but we're still paying for the BT Landline it's plugged in to, but that phone (and a couple other ones) are also part of the emergency contingency plans in-case the PBX fails.

 

The problem is that if you have a 1Gbs line you don't have many options for a back up, and if you have two fibre connections they are probably using the same infrastructure.

[hallb15]

The problem is that if you have a 1Gbs line you don't have many options for a back up, and if you have two fibre connections they are probably using the same infrastructure.

 

I was thinking of a 4G/5G backup option but that would obviously not handle a huge amount of data and would only be for core systems that were deemed 100% necessary.

Something like this https://weconnect.one/4g-back-up/

But at €65 a month that soon adds up to a sizeable amount, especially for a Primary School.

[jthompson]

For a backup option I would have thought a starting point would be a 4G/5G dongle with a suitable SIM. Something with a low monthly cost but with enough data allowance to cover the absolute essentials during an outage (e.g. MIS functions, phones, email). If you're wanting something to give redundancy for everyone's regular connectivity in a 1:1 environment, then that's obviously a different thing.

[localzuk]

Talk about FTTP, how does this work in rural areas which do not have FTTP at all? There's no FTTP within 25 miles of here. Some areas are getting the tech installed via the Connecting Devon and Somerset scheme, but those areas that were connected to FTTC via the scheme previously don't appear to be on their radar.

 

It isn't a problem for our existing schools - we've got leased lines in everywhere, but properly rural spots? Out on Exmoor/Quantocks? Tiny schools? They can't afford a full leased line (even though the capability is there due to prior work by our LEA), so are currently stuck on very slow connections...

[Wave9_Lee]

What about the section that says "Schools and colleges should have a backup broadband connection to ensure resilience and maintain continuity of service"

 

I don't know of any primary schools that have a backup connection as the cost outweighs the risk, especially with the SLA with the ISP.

Is this the Yorkshireman in me not wanting to pay for something that won't be needed 99.9% of the time?

What do other schools do?

The key thing is to try and get some separation where possible. Yes, 2 leased lines using Openreach might use the same duct and exchange, but you can pay to guarantee separacy (quite pricey and can involve civils work). It's sometimes possible to specify two different fibre providers, aiming to ensure different duct etc (i.e. Openreach + VMB or Cityfibre etc). I think that the most common scenario would be a leased line, with an fttp backup or fttc backup. FttP and FttC will use different routes back to an exchange generally, (and the exchanges are generator protected), so from the school/provider end, you can ensure that the logical routes are different too - i.e we specify different ISPs for backup services so that in the unlikely event of a routing or other config failure, your second link is unaffected.

 

And for the Yorkshiremen, as standard we configure both links as active/active so you can use what you're buying, load balanced, weighted etc. It also means you could have a scenario where your voip on your backup link in normal use, and have it failover to your main link in the event of a fault, and vise versa for data.

 

And don't forget that you should ideally use failover hardware and UPS - we will be specifying this as a standard option going forward.

[hallb15]

And for the Yorkshiremen, as standard we configure both links as active/active so you can use what you're buying, load balanced, weighted etc. It also means you could have a scenario where your voip on your backup link in normal use, and have it failover to your main link in the event of a fault, and vise versa for data.

 

And don't forget that you should ideally use failover hardware and UPS - we will be specifying this as a standard option going forward.

 

We currently have a 300Mb connection via CityFibre which will do 1Gb if we paid more per quarter, but to get another service, e.g. via Openreach or VM, would double the amount we have to pay a month, plus there would be additional hardware required to do the load balancing and failover. All that to cover the >1% downtime of our current connection. It isn't the best use of any school's limited budget.

[Wave9_Lee]

We currently have a 300Mb connection via CityFibre which will do 1Gb if we paid more per quarter, but to get another service, e.g. via Openreach or VM, would double the amount we have to pay a month, plus there would be additional hardware required to do the load balancing and failover. All that to cover the >1% downtime of our current connection. It isn't the best use of any school's limited budget.

 

Agreed, that's why I say the most common scenario would be fttc/fttp backup. Which can still be used in full, not just during an outage. You have to also look at your useage during an outage - if a secondary school with a Gbps line has an ADSL or v low fttc backup, it feels pointless in some ways, but it does mean you can still use voip, have critical admin systems online, and with the right traffic shaping policies, allow a cut down curriculum use. Having said that, many large schools will take a 100Mbps leased line backup for a Gbps main link.

 

cheers

[ITGuyNW]

Slightly different take but wanting Schools to have amazing broadband connections by 2025 AND expanding Oak academy to become more integrated in Education to provide lessons from a central location....I'd be slightly cautious if I was a high paid teacher!

 

Anyway...We're just a 100mb High School at the moment. 1gig would be nice.

[Primus]

What about the section that says "Schools and colleges should have a backup broadband connection to ensure resilience and maintain continuity of service"

 

I don't know of any primary schools that have a backup connection as the cost outweighs the risk, especially with the SLA with the ISP.

Is this the Yorkshireman in me not wanting to pay for something that won't be needed 99.9% of the time?

What do other schools do?

 

The tender we've just put out for our MAT broadband has every school with a resilient connection - including the primaries.

[Primus]

Agreed, that's why I say the most common scenario would be fttc/fttp backup. Which can still be used in full, not just during an outage. You have to also look at your useage during an outage - if a secondary school with a Gbps line has an ADSL or v low fttc backup, it feels pointless in some ways, but it does mean you can still use voip, have critical admin systems online, and with the right traffic shaping policies, allow a cut down curriculum use. Having said that, many large schools will take a 100Mbps leased line backup for a Gbps main link.

 

cheers

 

The issue we've found with an FTTC backup is the upload speed, we max it out so quickly the connection comes to a halt. We end up having to shape traffic very aggressively so that our SIP lines still work, our new tender doesn't allow for FTTC as a resilient connection in anything other than a primary and even then it's not ideal.

[CyBeRkId2002]

We are a secondary (1200 on roll), only have a 100mb connection and are not seeing any limitations at all. I do think if we utilised OneDrive / Sharepoint more my experience would be different!