Press release

Hertfordshire County Council brings schools together with a high speed network

• ntl:Telewest Business delivers managed network service in a £31m deal

28th September 2006. Hertfordshire County Council has partnered with ntl:Telewest Business to connect 172,000 users, including children at schools and residential homes, staff and local communities with fast broadband and Internet services.

Hertfordshire County Council, the third largest Local Education Authority (LEA) in the country, has deployed a WAN (Wide Area Network) to interconnect schools, residential homes and wider communities with high-speed links as a part of The Hertfordshire Grid for Learning.

More than 20,000 PCs are connected using high speed links, including 150 PCs located at residential homes to allow children who cannot attend regular classes to communicate with their fellow pupils and access the internet.

House-bound school children can now take advantage of 10 Mbps Broadband speed to access richer education resources and services, learning programmes and content delivered over an extended, secure intranet. They can also speak to their fellow students via email and Instant Messenger (IM) and in the future will be able to take part in live videoconference lessons.

“Among all things, ntl:Telewest Business has changed the way our students can now communicate with each other,” said Chris Seviour, ICT Technical Adviser for The Hertfordshire Grid for Learning. “In the past, house-bound students would not have internet access and were unable to partake in student life. Now, they can access all teaching materials online, exchange emails and instant messages with their classmates and finally feel an integral part of school life.”

Currently, the Hertfordshire Grid for Learning network supports 23 million web page requests, as well as half a million emails every day. All Schools are now connected and have the ability to use video conferencing, roll out IP CCTV at schools, and offer access to media-rich content that is being developed by the BBC as part of the Curriculum Online programme.

Christopher Small, Director for Public Sector, ntl:Telewest Business said: “With the Government encouraging greater collaboration between schools, it is vital that local authorities recognise the need for faster networks that will bring communities closer. Hertfordshire County Council has been the first to meet the Government’s broadband speed targets and exceed them altogether. We hope that our partnership will enable to deliver even more, richer services to their students, staff and local citizens.”

The WAN intranet infrastructure provides Broadband connectivity to all HCC Schools, secure Internet access and Web filtering. In addition, the schools benefit from its own dedicated helpdesk at ntl:Telewest Business local office in Luton, email support, LAN maintenance and technical support available 24/7.

About ntl:Telewest Business

ntl:Telewest Business, part of the UK’s second largest fixed-line telecommunications company, is a leading communications provider to businesses, public sector organisations and service providers in the UK. It delivers a complete portfolio of voice, data and internet solutions nation-wide.

ntl:Telewest Business sales and support teams are located across the UK, in close proximity to our customers, as part of a commitment to deliver superior customer service.

ntl:Telewest Business delivers services over the Group’s £13bn investment  in its state-of-the-art infrastructure giving business customers access to the largest alternative network in the UK.

ntl:Telewest Business is trusted to provide critical communications to high profile customers including: Heathrow's Terminal 5, Birmingham City Council and Cambridgeshire County Council.

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