Management Information Sheet

Broadband contract extension – service developments and upgrades - September 2013

In MI sheet 181/13 we advised you of the improved ICT services for schools by delivering changes to internet infrastructure and bandwidth performance for Norfolk schools and academies. A joint project team from ICT Shared Services and BT based in County Hall has developed detailed plans to implement the changes.

Site surveys have commenced to collect data about your school’s network cabinet capacity for the changes and this has continued over the summer holidays. 185 school surveys have been completed.

We said we would provide information for what this would mean for your individual school as well as showing the progress and expected timeline for your school. This is now available on our website here. This information will continue to be updated as the project progresses including more specific timescales.

BT expects to achieve improved performance for schools through changes to the supporting infrastructure as follows:

Internet Access

BT will double the shared internet provision from 1Gb to 2Gb to improve internet performance in all schools. This work is dependent upon the Smoothwall filtering solution sign-off which we expect to sign off on 24th September. The date for the internet upgrade will be confirmed as soon as it is available.

Broadband links for secondary schools and academies

The current rate limit on High Schools 100Mb links will be lifted to allow the full 100Mb bandwidth. This un-throttling of the link is dependent on the item above. Date to be confirmed as soon as it is available.

Broadband links for primary and special schools and academies

This information is available via the website on a school basis as the solutions vary as described in MI sheet 181/13.