Official Broadband requirements

[sparkeh]

After being asked to look into leaving our RBC I looked around for the official requirements for school broadband but can't seem to find anything.

 

I am sure that there used to be a document *somewhere* that outlined what schools needed to put in place (eg connection to NEN and filtering etc).

 

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

[GrumbleDook]

The last materials I can refer to are the 2006 Functional Specs for Connectivity http://schools.becta.org.uk/upload-dir/downloads/functional_spec_connectivity_v1.pdf but there is also the NEN 2009 report too http://www.nen.gov.uk/files/NEN_BB_Entitlement_PRF5.pdf

 

I know there is other stuff about so I will start a search running.

[Sylv3r]

I hear the words coco compliant banded around quite a bit - this is something I believe the ISP requires.

 

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/publicsector/government/information-governance/get-coco-while-its-hot.aspx

[36Degrees]

Just be careful! I know when I looked into it some years ago the cost of broadband within Nottinghamshire was already taken off you by the LEA and therefore if we had gone elsewhere we would have effectively paid twice. Also, the LEA would only allow connections to their servers through the RBC line or an approved BT line.

[sparkeh]

Just be careful! I know when I looked into it some years ago the cost of broadband within Nottinghamshire was already taken off you by the LEA and therefore if we had gone elsewhere we would have effectively paid twice. Also, the LEA would only allow connections to their servers through the RBC line or an approved BT line.

 

Yeah we are invoiced for it so shouldn't fall into that trap.

What services require you to connect to their servers?

[36Degrees]

What services require you to connect to their servers?

 

I'm not sure now as it was some time ago but I know there were certain mechanisms in place for transferring data between the schools and the LEA, mainly financial as I recall. The only one I know for definite now is that our SIMS data is backed up remotely by the LEA's ICT support team.

Edited June 29, 2010 by 36Degrees
I karnt speel

[spc-rocket]

Hi,

 

We had some emails from county regarding the EIS service. It will be available to schools who are NOT on the embc but there will be a small charge - exactly what the small charge is for is anyone's guess but i'll find out this tommorow. I would have thought that moving eis to embc platform and then charging the schools is not really appropriate because it the info on the main county's website is free. If the creation of accounts on embc platform requires funding then it may be this cost but i'm not sure on this.

 

Apart from that we use AVCO - the secure file transfer to and from county hall for files and this is still working as before i.e. no embc connectivity needed. I agree with the others that services such as remote sims backup etc may require the connectivity from embc however we do not require this service at present or for the foreseeable future.

 

Ash.

 

Ash.

[rsenior]

At the moment EMBC offers good value,the current price to the school is discounted because in leicestershire the Lea hangs on to harnessing technology grant and uses this to fund the embc.(Bear in mind that your current invoice is only an estmate and you may receive another in Oct). I looked at moving away just before the switch to synetrix,the setup cost to buy new servers,microsoft exchange,sharepoint,web filtering and 2800 cisco ISR came to around £12000 include the first years line rental from BT and an on going cost of around £4500 for line rental etc.

 

We find that apart from the sums problems we have a pretty good service from EMBC but would still consider moving if we lost the grants and had to fund the £11700(the original cost without standard funds or HT grant) ourself.

Edited June 29, 2010 by rsenior

[spc-rocket]

@rsenior

 

I think from this year onwards the HT grant will be done away so i'm not sure if schools would need to pay for this out of their normal funds.

 

Ash.

[sparkeh]

At the moment EMBC offers good value,the current price to the school is discounted because in leicestershire the Lea hangs on to harnessing technology grant and uses this to fund the embc.

 

Is this completely accurate?

Reason I ask is the info we had from LA is that the HT grant is being retained to pay for the network upgrade, not to offset against the subscription.

 

edit: Reread letter, grant was retained to to pay for infrastructure costs and upgrades.

Edited June 30, 2010 by sparkeh

[Edu-IT]

The 6 companies through to the next round are up on EIS for connectivity post 2012.

[rsenior]

"The current arrangements in relation to EMBC costs and service levels

Schools currently pay a per pupil amount plus a fixed charge for their embc service. Harnessing Technology grant has in the past paid for the connectivity charge. The LA has smoothed the costs such that larger schools pay proportionally more than smaller schools in order to offset the effects of both connectivity charge and distance from the local telephone exchange on which this charge is based."

 

This is a direct quote from an open letter from heads to the embc. It can be found on eis :

https://portal.leics.embc.uk.com/eis/laservices/bbreproc/Lists/Recent%20Announcements/Attachments/11/LPH.pdf