Mobile Phones In Schools

[adampat84]

We have been asked to look into providing Mobiles for SLT an Key staff members...

 

I havn't the foggist where to start...

 

Soooo, what has everyone else implemented??

 

We are looking for a single solution for around 10 people, one type reliable phone, (ie able to replace battery easily, easy to reset, sync exchange etc). minutes, texts, data??

 

If anyone would like to put the cost aswell??

 

I'm fine at find my own contract, but when it comes to finding one for the school... ahhhhhhhh

Edited May 25, 2010 by adampat84
missing word

[jamesreedersmith]

Do you have whole site Wifi - if so go for a voip wifi system, can integrate with your own phone system then and make it interoperable.

[adampat84]

No.. we don't have whole site wifi..

 

On the list on things to do!!

[Jobos]

Do you have whole site Wifi - if so go for a voip wifi system, can integrate with your own phone system then and make it interoperable.

 

That's an interesting idea. What hardware/software would it need?

[teejay]

We have been asked to look into providing Mobiles for SLT an Key staff members...

 

I havn't the foggist where to start...

 

Soooo, what has everyone else implemented??

 

We are looking for a single solution for around 10 people, one type reliable phone, (ie able to replace battery easily, easy to reset, sync exchange etc). minutes, texts, data??

 

If anyone would like to put the cost aswell??

 

I'm fine at find my own contract, but when it comes to finding one for the school... ahhhhhhhh

 

Personally I'd go with Blackberries, nice and robust, good battery, works great with exchange using the blackberry enterprise server express software. Cost wise, not much different from normal contracts, its just a case of haggling with the usual mobile phone operators business divisions.

[jamesreedersmith]

Would partly depend on your exsisting phone system but what i did at one site was rip out the whole old system and put in a VOIP Trixbox system, new extension in every class (formerly only 10 extensions in the whole school) now about 38, plus 5 voip wifi handsets all interlinked, every body had voice mail etc etc.

[prad]

Personally I'd go with Blackberries, nice and robust, good battery, works great with exchange using the blackberry enterprise server express software. Cost wise, not much different from normal contracts, its just a case of haggling with the usual mobile phone operators business divisions.

 

Totally agree with teejay on this one. When you buy 10 blackberrys they should give you 10 Blackberry Enterprise Server CALs for free (if they don't then insist they do and they will). If you're going with Vodafone, tell them you've got dead spots all around the school and they should throw in some suresignal devices...

[adampat84]

thanks for all the feedback.. will look in to the Blackberries.

 

Anymore welcome!!

[localzuk]

Someone's gotta say it - how about a fleet of iPhones?

[Soulfish]

Best idea is to get pricing from the main mobile networks on their OGC Buying Solutions frameworks. The price is a lot cheaper then typical mobile contracts with choices of 1, 12, 18 and 24 monthly contracts normally. If you want more info drop me a PM. The contracts themselves are covered by NDAs unfortunately

[prad]

oh oh oh... forgot to mention a REALLY important point about blackberrys and Blackberry Enterprise Server: They are the only devices that you can wipe remotely (as long as you have BES). From within BES there is an option to disable and wipe the handheld. A signal is sent over the mobile phone network and the devices resets. When it powers on again, ALL data is wiped. From a data protection point of view this is hugely important when thinking about using smartphones in a school.

 

Also, with BES, the blackberrys will be able to access the schools LAN across a secure VPN. So if you have an intranet or other resources you want the blackberrys to access....

Edited May 25, 2010 by prad
spelling error

[Soulfish]

oh oh oh... forgot to mention a REALLY important point about blackberrys and Blackberry Enterprise Server: They are the only devices that you can wipe remotely (as long as you have BES). From within BES there is an option to disable and wipe the handheld. A signal is sent over the mobile phone network and the devices resets. When it powers on again, ALL data is wiped. From a data protection point of view this is hugely important when thinking about using smartphones in a school.

 

Also, with BES, the blackberrys will be able to access the schools LAN across a secure VPN. So if you have an intranet or other resources you want the blackberrys to access....

 

You can now do that with BES Express as well, so it's now feasible to run a small number of Blackberrys

[prad]

You can now do that with BES Express as well, so it's now feasible to run a small number of Blackberrys

 

That's great news! Good on RIM.

[banjoman]

Our schools use iPhones, we use 24 of them the best thing we have ever done

[adampat84]

Blackberries are sounding more an more interesting..

 

especially the remote wipe capability!!!!

[CyberNerd]

I saw a remote wipe app for android, just send it a particular SMS and it does a factory reset

Remote Wipe for root users for Android

 

theres probably an app for the iphone, then again.

[mb2k01]

You can remote wipe on any device in Exchange 2010, unless I've dreamed doing it - which is faintly possible!

[steve]

I'd have a word with your local authority too, mine told me they can get a contract for £4 a month with unlimited voice calls to same network, more for data and no handset, but its not too bad.

[Soulfish]

I'd have a word with your local authority too, mine told me they can get a contract for £4 a month with unlimited voice calls to same network, more for data and no handset, but its not too bad.

 

That'll be through the OGC contract

[glennda]

Blackberries aswell can be setup so that if the passkey is entered in backwards it alerts the police and sends its location gathered via GPS. (not sure how it works but thats how my dads work one does it!)

[Sylv3r]

Our LA mobile contracts are all through Vodafone.

 

The caretakers, and other various support staff (PSA's, Extended Schools Co-ordinator, Transition Worker) as well as the bookable 'school trips' phone have a basic handset.

 

The headteacher, Deputy Head and School Business Manager have blackberries. We get sufficient contracts that a lot of inclusive minutes as well as data charges are included - not so much texts.

[john]

Must admit the OGC Contracts are very good, I am going to look at our mobile phones after i've finished with the land line call packages which are on my current to-do list as I've done the Phone System Maintenance contract now, so its land lines them mobiles That should improve things as we currently have various options, prices, packages etc so I will need to get more info on the OGC one on my own rather than via the LA buying system as that is quite expensive as I don't want them to be too costly, just a shame I cannot staff purcahse one for my own use as I spend £10 a month on my phone but don't really want 2 phones again like I used to have.....

[adampat84]

Thanks for all the feedback guys... Brilliant.

 

I now have several options in the pipeline... OGC seems to be the way to go.

 

Will update when SLT choose...

[Disease]

We are with Vodafone, we have 2 Blackberry's, 1 LG Arena (mine), 1 samsung Soul, and 11 Nokia 6300.