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24 years’ experience in professional IT support

Qualified IT experts supporting hundreds of organisations around the UK

99.4% customer retention rate

Pricing Power

We support hundreds of schools so we’re a large, influential customer to all the internet providers.

We’re Your Helpdesk

Forget waiting on hold for support from your provider. We’re your helpdesk and we answer in 4 rings.

Education Focused

Internet providers are not education focused, but we are. We save schools a world of hassle.

Schools Broadband Procurement & Support

With our support for your school broadband your staff and pupils will enjoy a fast and rewarding experience every time they go online. We specialise in ICT for schools, so we understand your needs and speak your language.

How to buy

We work through several DfE procurement frameworks, which we can explain to help you get started. Contact us in the first instance, so we can talk you through the process.

Get no-obligations quotes for your school from our school broadband partners.

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Bandwidth measurement

Free tech analysis of your school’s bandwidth needs

Procurement service

We obtain bids from all internet providers in your area

Backup connection

Failover broadband line with a different provider guarantees 100% uptime

Tech support

Our education-focused helpdesk answers in 4 rings

We're education-focused and always flexible

We’re leading DfE ICT providers

Since we specialise in supporting schools, we fully understand everything you need to do online to keep your school compliant and running as it should. We work through DfE procurement frameworks, so you can rest assured you’re in good hands.

We know how internet providers operate

We specialise in bringing both sides together to help them understand each other and achieve a mutually satisfying business relationship. Schools which have previously tried to manage their own internet connection directly with a telecoms provider tend to be the most enthusiastic about retaining our services as an intermediary.

We negotiate for contract changes & better prices on your behalf

We use our strong negotiating power to give schools greater flexibility as well as better prices. Our ability to obtain flexibility for schools has included changing contracts, terminating contracts early and obtaining extra services without additional charges.

We build in resilience so your school broadband never fails

Resilience means have a second internet connection with a different provider, so you fail over to that if the first one temporarily goes down. This is how top schools make sure they’re never, ever offline.

How many of your school’s apps are in the cloud?

With so many education services now provided online through Google docs and Microsoft 365, internet resilience makes sense. It’s the best way to guard against potential disruption to teaching, learning and school admin, including safeguarding procedures.

School internet resilience options

These fail-over options give your school broadband gradually increasing levels of guaranteed uptime:

  1. An additional line to the local exchange via a different provider.
  2. An additional line that terminates at a different exchange.
  3. Connect to different exchanges via totally separate fibre-optic cables that are not shared at any point in between your server room and the selected exchanges.

How much will a backup school broadband line cost?

The three options above will have incrementally growing costs. However, failovers cost less than many schools realise.

Our design engineers can advise you on connectivity resilience options that suit your budget. We can also use our pricing power to get your the best prices on the market.

What internet connectivity and school broadband solutions do we offer?

We provide enterprise-grade leased line internet connections for many schools. We take on the hassle of getting your school’s new fibre line laid, so you can focus on the teaching and learning.

Leased Lines / Fibre Internet

This light-speed connection travels through fibre-optic cable from the local exchange to your server room. We can get a new fibre line laid to your school if you don’t already have one, dealing with the internet provider on your behalf.

Ethernet Networks

We can design a Wide Area Network (WAN) if you need to connect two or more school sites together seamlessly. Our ICT consultants design the networks for around 100 DfE funded new-build schools each year, so you’ll be in good hands.

Analogue Solutions

Analogue solutions are becoming obsolete, but for some things they’re still useful. In a power cut, your fire alarms or lifts could stop working if they rely on an internet connection. With an old-fashioned copper line, they would still work.

How is our school broadband and internet connectivity pricing calculated?

We are volume purchasers from all the tier-one channel providers, which is how we consistently get better prices for school broadband. The factors that affect your individual school’s pricing can include:

Your school’s internet bandwidth

Depending on your school’ size and level of computer use, bandwidth may vary from 100 megabytes to 1 gigabyte. Some areas can obtain as much as 10 gigabytes.

Your choice of resilience solution

The type of fail-over resilience solution you opt for can vary significantly in cost.

Your school’s location

In some locations, it’s necessary to lay fibre lines over longer distances to connect your building to the existing data network.

Your internet provider contract length

The internet providers are generally more willing to reduce prices if you sign up for longer contracts.

How it works

About our School Broadband Service

1

You tell us how your school uses the internet.

We will need to know how many people will use your school broadband, and what they do online.
2

We define your requirements.

We calculate the bandwidth and speed you need for a fast school broadband connection, with a resilient line in case your usual line fails. We keep you compliant with the department for education’s new standards for connectivity.
3

We design your network.

If you have more than one site, or need anything more complex than a single line, our school broadband networking professionals will design your solution free of charge.
4

We get quotes.

We manage connectivity for over 200 schools, which gives us strong pricing power. Our mini procurement exercise will select an appropriate tier-one provider available in your area, having considered the range of available options and pricing from Gamma, Virgin, BT, Openreach, Talk-Talk and Beyond.
5

You sign a contract with us.

We sign a similar contract with the most suitable provider. At this point we commit to a future together as you become our customer for your connectivity requirements.
6

Our ICT engineers support you.

This will either be on site if you have selected this option, or through our telephone helpdesk.

Why choose us to manage your school broadband?

Our helpdesk support is quick and easy to use

Instead of long phone calls to your internet provider waiting on hold, you simply phone or email our helpdesk to get any problem resolved by us. We set very high standards of customer service and make sure we meet or exceed our rigorous Service Level Agreement (SLA).

Our network design skills give you fast internet connectivity throughout the school

Our staff routinely design and install complex network solutions, paying equal attention to both external and internal networks. For both, we pay particular attention to the distribution of high speeds, avoidance of bottlenecks or single sources of failure, and ensuring robust resiliency.

Sometimes we’re superheroes

Occasionally, a school finds itself in a pickle and we can save the day. We’ve got a school back online after it accidentally cancelled its internet provider a year early, and helped another school stay in business after it switched to a new broadband provider that kept it waiting half the year before it laid its new fibre line!