Delivering broadband services to 560 schools across Hertfordshire

The road to service: ntl helps Hertfordshire County Council deliver

Rolling out secure broadband widearea network services to 560 schools was no mean feat. Yet this is the bold challenge Hertfordshire County Council - with the third-largest Local Education Authority (LEA) in the country - set itself, aligned to the Government’s National Grid for Learning initiative. This seeks to interconnect schools, children’s residential homes and wider communities using high-speed links so that these groups can benefit from richer and more efficient learning programmes and content, delivered over an extended, secure intranet.

For ntl, the Council’s communications partner, the project was also challenging - the project scale was such that the network needed to stretch across four  different ntl cable areas. ntl provided a complete managed network service,  co-ordinated by a single, dedicated team and supported by a local helpdesk. ntl’s contract was to provide high-speed connectivity to the schools,  with all the necessary security and reliability assurances that are so critical  hen children make up the majority of the target user base.

The project has been ongoing for six years - Hertfordshire’s plan to create a regional intranet pre-dated the Government’s region by region Grid for Learning plan – and provided broadband internet access, email and media-rich content sharing across all schools in the Hertfordshire region.

How it all began

The initial contract saw ntl build the WAN intranet infrastructure for the Council, providing the PCs and PSTN lines, along with content filtering, email services, computer maintenance and technical support that was delivered from a single, central helpdesk. While the project involved co-ordinating multiple third-party suppliers, the infrastructure took just six months to build, and went live in March 1999.

Initially, 403 schools were provided with a PC and a PSTN line and 155 schools were provided with a 64 Kbps ISDN connection. This has gradually evolved, and many schools are now using multiple PCs and 128 Kbps ISDN connections. Already, nearly 300 schools have access to 2 Mbps connections, including the 85  secondary schools in the region. The new contract will see this evolution  continue, with ntl upgrading the network to provide comprehensive broadband communications across the county.

The network is powered by resilient, high performance Sun Microsystems servers, which are continually being upgraded. Services are fully backed up and covered by 24x7 support and a comprehensive disaster recovery programme.

The next stage

When the contract came up for renewal in March 2004, the Council was obliged by law to go out to tender. It was by no means a foregone conclusion that ntl would win the contract. ntl has been a provider of voice and data communications services to Hertfordshire County Council for many years, during which a strong relationship has developed, giving ntl a detailed understanding of the Council’s needs as they have developed and changed. Chris Seviour, co-ordinator of the Hertfordshire Grid for Learning, notes: “There was a lot of competition and the decision was hard, but ntl have proved that they are prepared to listen and meet our needs. We meet fortnightly to review the service and our plans, and ntl are very good at adapting. They understand that things need to keep changing as new opportunities arise.”

That flexibility means appreciating that each school on the network will have its own, unique demands, too. For example, one school might want to implement a card swipe solution to That flexibility means appreciating that each school on the network will have its own, unique demands, too. For example, one school might want to implement a card swipe solution to replace dinner money, Seviour explains.  “To get a better deal, they might want to have this system supported remotely across the network, which would mean ntl would need to facilitate secure access. Furthermore, as email services develop, schools may also want to implement more sophisticated solutions, such as Microsoft Exchange Server and calendar scheduling.

They may also want to provide teachers with access to these applications from home. These new functionalities all require changes by ntl at the firewall, and ntl have become very good at dealing with this. For us to be able to give schools a good service requires ntl’s flexibility.”

ntl’s contractual commitment was to ensure that, by the end of 2004, all 560 schools in the Hertfordshire catchment area had a minimum of 2 Mbps connectivity. Once this major milestone was achieved, ntl upgraded the 85 secondary schools in the region to 10 Mbps true broadband, exceeding the Government’s requirement of 8 Mbps. This must be achieved by a Government deadline of August 2006. The increased capacity will allow much faster access to the Internet for larger numbers of PCs and will create new possibilities, such as the ability to use video conferencing and media-rich content that is being developed by the BBC as part of the Curriculum Online programme.

“While this material doesn’t have to be broadcast live to pupils, having high-speed network access will allow media-rich content to be cached overnight for use the next day” Seviour says.

Faith in the future

Communications between schools are expected to grow in importance as network performance improves. “The Government is encouraging greater collaboration between schools, which may see sixth forms taking it in turns to host different subjects. An integrated WAN with high bandwidth will allow this” Seviour notes.

The increased bandwidth also makes it easier for the Hertfordshire LEA to support all the schools efficiently and consistently. The LEA has its own information and communication technology (ICT) support team from which most schools purchase services and many of these can now be provided remotely across the WAN. The same facility is also provided to third party suppliers of support services to schools.

Seviour notes that the business broadband services it is procuring from ntl are different from those available to consumers. “There has been some confusion about the difference” he says. “We’re using 2 Mbps dedicated leased lines – the high bandwidth is available on demand and is not shared with other users, which means performance cannot be compromised.”

ntl manages the whole facility from Luton, where all the necessary servers, infrastructure, helpdesk and dedicated service personnel are located. For support purposes, this means one freephone number to ring and the assurance that any problems will be fixed according to strict Service Level Agreements (SLAs).

The fact that ntl is providing the managed broadband service locally from Luton was a critical factor in Hertfordshire County Council choosing to continue working with ntl.

“We wanted a local help centre with static staff so we could build a relationship between the schools and the helpdesk” Seviour says. “The fact that ntl could provide this has been quite significant in ensuring the quality of service we need.”

Because the Grid for Learning project is so substantial and critical, highlevel monthly account meetings are necessary. Key ntl and council employees attend these meetings, which monitor the progress and performance of the project against expectations.

ntl has assigned a dedicated project manager to the work, too. “This is a critical role” says Seviour. “Providing broadband to a new location is not just a case of flicking a switch. There is a lot of work involved at ntl’s end, not least in terms of security and quality of service provisioning, which requires lots of detailed planning and co-ordination.”

“Extending 2 Mbps broadband to all our schools by Christmas 2004 was quite a challenge, but we’re very confident in ntl’s ability to get us there.”

St Clements Dane School

St Clements Dane School was one of the first to benefit from a broadband connection to the Hertfordshire intranet, and IT manager, Trevor Mace, says he is delighted with the communications service he is now able to provide to the school’s pupils and the teaching staff. “We have over 200 PCs in the school that are now connected to the Internet so that pupils can access curriculum content. Even on a ‘bad day’ the network performance is very slick” he says.

“We only had 128 Kbps ISDN2 before, and accessing services could be like a dog trying to run in cement. With the 2 Mbps connection provided by ntl, we’ve now got 15 times the bandwidth and students are much more motivated to do research because they can get fast and easy access to the materials they need. Before, we had to restrict Internet access to certain rooms, whereas now a room with 30 workstations can be booked for a lesson if an Internet element is needed -we now have the confidence that all 30 pupils will be able to get online without a wait. As a result, the Internet is now taken for granted as a day-today tool. It’s made a huge difference.” As well as having speedy access to rich content, the school is benefiting from the opportunity to collaborate interactively with other schools, in locations as far away as Germany, France and Spain. This has enabled the school to take part in an ambitious technology project with international partners.

According to Mace, ntl’s role as the service provider has been critical to the enthusiastic take-up of WAN-based information and communications services by the school. “We have quite a bit of contact with ntl and their helpdesk is very good” he says.

“We’ve had a tour of the site at Luton and were very impressed.” “What’s more, their staff have been very responsive whenever we’ve wanted to do things differently. Security is very important to us and ntl has been very careful to ensure this has all been handled properly for us. Rather than say an instant ‘yes’ to what we have wanted, they have considered issues carefully. We find the team very professional, yet also very friendly and approachable.”