Am I allowed to source internet provision from an alternative source?
Of course, no school is obliged to source internet provision from the Local Education Authority, the choice is totally in the hands of the school. Schools traditionally sourced their internet provision from the LEA as there were very few alternative options.
Internet provision from Broadband4 can represent a massive cost saving over the same (or lower spec) service from the LEA.
My LEA is telling me I will be unable to access essential services (such as SIMS) if I do not purchase internet provision from them.
This is a common obstacle which is put in front of schools by LEAs when looking to move away from their existing internet provision. LEAs cannot legally insist that schools purchase internet connectivity from themselves in order to access essential services. The LEA has a duty to schools to provide access to essential services such as SIMS, from outside their network, if asked by the school.
LEAs can insist that secure access is provided by means of 2 factor authentication or secure remote desktop, which may attract a nominal annual fee to the school however these costs must be realistic. The key point is that LEAs cannot only provide access to services from inside their broadband network, therefore forcing schools to purchase these services.
Will my Broadband4 service be as fast as my current LEA connection?
Definitely! In most cases internet connections from Broadband4 are FASTER than the LEA connections they replace. Depending on the chosen access technology, Broadband4 services provide from 20Mbps to 10Gbps of bandwidth. A typical primary school will achieve 50-80Mbps using Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) and secondary schools with a leased line will receive a minimum of 100Mbps over dedicated fibre.
How reliable is Broadband4?
All Broadband4 connections come with an SLA. Leased lines offer 99.997% uptime and FTTC connections offer a maximum 20 hour fix. FTTC connections from Broadband4 include enhanced care on both the PSTN (Phone Line) and FTTC (Broadband) portion of the circuit.
All Broadband4 services are monitored by our Network Operations centre and any faults are handled directly by our engineers.
Are there any additional costs?
All quoted prices are all inclusive of installation and hardware. The only exception to this are any excess construction charges which may be incurred during the installation of a leased line.
Excess charges are rare, especially in education where there usually an existing fibre connection in place, which is being replaced by Broadband4. We will always endeavour to establish which incumbent services providers exist and use these service providers to deliver Broadband4 services at a lower cost!
How will my service be delivered?
Dependant on the option chosen, your Broadband4 service will be delivered using either FTTC/P (Fibre to the Cabinet/Premises), GEA (Ethernet over FTTC), EFM (Ethernet First Mile) or Fibre leased line. An onsite survey may be necessary before your service is installed.
Once installed Broadband4 will supply a Service Access Gateway or Layer 3 switch and configure it to connect or our network.
How long will it take for my service to be delivered?
Depending on the chosen option installation will take place from between 15-90 days from the point of ordering.