Broadband access

[synaesthesia]

Nice easy one, hopefully

 

Northants - due to lack of HT grant schools must now pay for their broadband access (well now being soon).

Are schools obliged to use EMBC or are they now open to use other providers?

[themanfromict]

I was trying to find this out yesterday. I hadn't noticed until then that we have been given such a huge estimate range:

Primary/middle/special school: £5000 - £12,000

Secondary school £17,000 - £30,000

 

At least this might allow me to "continue investigating e-learning systems", while we spend the HT funds of broadband.

[synaesthesia]

Aye, the range's I've seen are silly. In the meantime I've taken brief looks at RM's managed leased lines and keeping a beady eye open for other alternatives. Not many of those around as a majority of primaries will not wish to be responsible for things like filtering leaving the fully managed and education targeted products the only feasible options, and either way we're talking silly money at a time when schools have little/none

[plexer]

I expect Grumbledook will be along shortly with some info.

 

Ta.

 

Ben

[GrumbleDook]

Sorry I can't give too much info (not deliberately being awkward, just having to wear my LA hat) but there is a school specific letter going out shortly with the indicative pricing for each site. The Schools Broadband Working Group (reps from schools and the LA) has a charging model which has been designed to be more fair than the previous one price fits all primary and another all secondary.

 

It is going to be discussed at Schools Forum on 18th October and we will stick more info up on the NCC website when appropriate. There was discussion on this at the last IT Managers' meeting and rather than me give a version of the discussion that would be at risk of challenge of bias ... I would ask anyone else who went along to put their version across.

 

I know it is a painful thing to suddenly have a bill sent over, but this is not a cut we have any control of.

[Kitkatninja]

...There was discussion on this at the last IT Managers' meeting and rather than me give a version of the discussion that would be at risk of challenge of bias ... I would ask anyone else who went along to put their version across...

 

I went to the IT Services Meeting and I'll put my hand up to say that I've been asked to look into whether or not continuing with EMBC is a viable option. Currently I am neither pro or against EMBC, however this bill on it's way has kinda put my nose out of joint (that's not to say that I don't understand why this is happening).

 

It's not just the case of swapping internet providers for internet access, there's also the following to take into consideration:

 

1. Filtering (internet, as well as e-mail) and the responsibility fall's with them if anything goes wrong.

2. E-mail access.

3. Videoconferencing

4. Web Hosting

5. Same Bi-directional speed (eg 10mb up/down and not 10mb down/756kb up)

 

And a whole range of other services that they provide (waiting for the list).

 

-Ken

[synaesthesia]

Surprising how many schools have looked at getting "business class" ADSL with 8mb down and 512k up speeds - and of course none of the above safety features. On which note let's add "eCAF compliance" to that list.

[sparkeh]

Are schools obliged to use EMBC or are they now open to use other providers?

 

You are not obliged to use EMBC, though it appears to be a commonly held belief (at least around here) that you are.

[synaesthesia]

So it seems. However it now moves from "are they obliged" to what is actually best for them. Is there a comparible product available with the same level of support and back-room features.

[Jonny]

We switched to adsl a few years ago when we got fed up with our LA's attitude and the expense of their solution.

They then went to providing free broadband to schools, and we moved back but only use them as an ISP.

We use SchoolGuardian for our filtering, and ISA for managing our traffic.

 

When they start charging again, we will go back to using 2 adsl lines from BT with ISA server load balancing between the 2 to provide us with 4mb.

You will need the backing of your HT for this as staff will need to get used to using the internet for mostly educational purposes again - no more streaming tv or radio stations

 

It is also worthwhile checking with local business, some of them have had fibre installed ahead of BT doing the rest of the area and might be happy to share the connection for a small amount - one of our local businesses has offered this to us as an option for the future

Edited October 1, 2010 by Jonny