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Schools Broadband Internet Issues

JazzFlute
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DrCheese

DrCheese

Posted
Posted (edited)
8 hours ago, Stephen_SchoolsBroadband said:

Hi All,

I completely understand the frustration here.

 

You’re absolutely right to call this out, and I appreciate how difficult it is on your side dealing with the impact in schools, especially when you’re the ones taking the pressure locally.

 

Pack in the Ai slop, you can spot it a mile away.

It's lazy, insincere & belittling towards customers.

Edited by DrCheese
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FN-GM

FN-GM

Posted
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Posted

There have been the same complaints about this company on here for at least a decade. Why are you lot still with them?

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DrCheese

DrCheese

Posted
Posted (edited)
7 hours ago, FN-GM said:

There have been the same complaints about this company on here for at least a decade. Why are you lot still with them?

Not always a choice, sadly. They bought out our previous ISP who we were happy with right at contract renewal & the existing terms meant we were locked in.


I note that the big long previous thread full of complaints about them was removed.

 

@Dos_Box Do you know why? (Or am I being blind) - If it's because they argued that the service has changed since it was orginally created then it's not the case....

Edited by DrCheese
Edu-IT

Edu-IT

Posted
Posted
On 16/04/2026 at 14:27, Stephen_SchoolsBroadband said:

Hi all,

 

I wanted to share a quick update following some reports of slow or interrupted internet access. Since schools returned from the holidays and usage increased, a small number of customers have noticed reduced performance at certain points during the day. This hasn’t affected everyone at the same time, but there have been brief issues during busy periods such as the start and end of the school day. Outside of these peak times, services are generally running more smoothly.

 

This issue is limited to a specific group of customers on one part of our network, with many others unaffected and continuing to receive a normal service. Our engineering teams are actively investigating and working through the remaining areas of concern, with this being treated as a high priority and overseen at a senior level. Work is ongoing to ensure services are stable and reliable, and we’ll continue to share updates.

 

If you’ve got any questions feel free to drop a reply here or message me directly and I’ll be happy to help.

 

Thanks

Stephen
 

Stephen Woodward | Technical Account Manager

Schools Broadband

E: stephen.woodward@talk-straight.com

M: 07526 566 588

Just out of interest, I assume you have data that shows a typical school usage, and you know the number of schools connected to your network. So the two multiplied together gives a rough idea of normal usage day to day, and then you build in some additional capacity for fluctuations.

 

When you say usage has increased, is this significantly above typical usage x number of sites connected + an allowance for fluctuation?

 

I guess the point I am wondering is can the network designed to cope with the maximum demand that could be placed on it as from your post it sounds not?

FN-GM

FN-GM

Posted
Posted
14 hours ago, DrCheese said:

I note that the big long previous thread full of complaints about them was removed.

 

@Dos_Box Do you know why? (Or am I being blind) - If it's because they argued that the service has changed since it was orginally created then it's not the case....

 

 Probably for £ - The same reason they have continued to be a sponsor, despite their reputation...

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sigma

sigma

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, JazzFlute said:

image.jpeg.9487488a0d97b7b43e8a4d0d7ef2609a.jpeg

 

This mornings update 🤷🏻‍♂️Im going home 😥


“Our vendor”. Is this a failed service from a third party or a bit of kit owned and managed by SBB, supported by a third party?  

 

One might ask questions about redundancy in SBB’s network service and their own resilience and contingency planning in the event that they cannot fulfil their service obligations to their customers.  

 

After a torrid time during the last academic year when our broadband was still supplied by SBB, and when we made a formal complaint to SBB, and then a formal complaint to one of their trade bodies to get the formal complaint to SBB actioned, we left them in August for LGfl.  I can only describe it as coming out of the darkness and into the light.

 

Don’t let anybody tell you it is either difficult or risky to make that move from SBB. Our experience would suggest that it’s risky not to.

 

 

Frodo_Baggins

Frodo_Baggins

Posted
Posted
On 18/04/2026 at 05:15, FN-GM said:

There have been the same complaints about this company on here for at least a decade. Why are you lot still with them?

 

Left one trust who used them and had constant lightspeed issues, new trust was just moving to them. I could have cried 😂

JazzFlute

JazzFlute

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

I don’t believe there has been any update where an admission of fault has been acknowledged. The issue has consistently been described as a third‑party problem rather than anything at the ISP’s end.

I understand that best practice and future guidance recommend internet redundancy, but this raises an important question: where is the redundancy at ISP level? The physical line itself appears to remain up, yet failures are repeatedly attributed to third parties. If that is the case, what resilience exists on their side?

I can tolerate one or two days of disruption at most, but a full week — now extending into a second — is simply not acceptable. At this point, I have made the decision to move away as soon as possible, contract or not.

The impact of having no internet connection is now significant. It affects almost every aspect of school operations, including teaching and lessons, safeguarding, registration, meals, supply staff, examinations, SATs practice, and online assessments.

 

Probably the worst day yet as its solidly down if there is such a thing with just a bit of uptime for me to rant on here 🤣

Edited by JazzFlute
cullingsh

cullingsh

Posted
Posted
27 minutes ago, sigma said:

Wonder which award SBB will be entering themselves for this year?

 

https://www.ispa.org.uk/ispa-awards/

ISPA.jpg.bb1794b07203b55b515f39c19f56db70.jpg

I think - 'Best Rural ISP' as everyone is getting the same quality connection as if they were in the countryside.

 

I think - 'Best Security & Consumer Protection' as the connection is lovely and secure. No naughty content making it through if the service doesn't work.

 

Perhaps this - 'Best Voice Provider' - our office staff do like it when the phones don't ring, nice and quiet.

 

Definitely this - 'Best Infrastructure Innovation' - I don't think it needs an explanation, but for the justification field - changes are constantly being made with little info to the end user until we find things don't work - ie reports in Netsweeper - router config changed overnight and then the rest of the week has issues - replacement customer routers sent out with all the config on, with 1/2 of it missing

 

And, just for giggles, this one 'Best Customer Experience' - Assuming no justification box required.

  • Haha 1
sigma

sigma

Posted
Posted
15 minutes ago, Frodo_Baggins said:

Assume this issue links back to the firmware update applied on the 10th/11th referenced in these threads https://hub.talk-straight.com/client/statusportal/event/1203 & The Hub - Event Summary - Advisory

 

What are the chances that someone hasn't read the change log on updates again? (not the first time this has happened with router firmware updates and routing issues\bgp)

 

Did they notice the problem "before" customers reported it this time?  

 

JazzFlute

JazzFlute

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I have very little confidence in the information being provided or in the status updates. They are unclear and feel like a “word salad,” with no definitive problem identified or clear resolution. As of Friday’s update, the issue was reported as found and fixed, yet we are now on Monday experiencing exactly the same problems.

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