mrsoft

True but as has been proved at schools which have switched, All of this has been managed perfectly. I wish I could mention the school involved but as I don't work there, It would be wrong of me to do so. They have said that switching ISP's last year was "the best thing they ever did". They explained the teething problems they had and how these were resolved. I really commend them for taking the leap as soon as they did. The school based ISP's we've looked at all have filtering built into the cost. The best part about it is that the school has the option to control it or use the companies own support desk. The connection is monitored and according to schools who are currently trialling it, it's not gone down so far. Also remember it's up to the city to collect data from you. NOT for the school to send it. As i said earlier, there are ways round any problems that crop up. I'm going to ask one of the schools if I can mention them in future posts. I'm sure they won't mind me saying they saved HALF the price for a better connection.

With all the stumbling blocks associated with changing ISP, There are ways around everything. In another school, Link2ict were forced to setup a VPN to collect data and provide support and such like after an ISP change. It's up to schools whether the inconvenience of other things is worth the saving. If you have a good ICT support in school, there's really not much need to contact them. I certainly don't day to day. I'm not saying don't go with Link2ICT at as there's some parts of the subscription that are great value fo money. The important fact is that schools shouldn't feel like there's no choice. Remember, Link2ICT are a limited company and as a result, have to turn a profit like every other comapny. Budgets have been cut, sacrifices have to made.

I've been looking at this last Friday and although it appears tricky, there are ways to get the cost down according to other schools. I'm hoping this doesn't break any forum rules but on recommendation from another school, I've been talking to a Birmingham based company called icomm about ISPs. Before that though, take a look at what other LA's are paying for ISP subscriptions. If you search hard enough on the web you'll find it and bar Solihull, I think almost all other local authorities are paying less. Birmingham (the biggest local authority in Europe by the way) should have the best buying power of all Authorites but sadly it doesn't seem to work out that way. WE ARE PAYING TOO MUCH! DON'T BE SCARED to look elsewhere! and don't be put off by potential issues!