Requirement
The Welsh Assembly Government’s Lifelong Learning Strategy set out minimum symmetric bandwidth requirements for each school in Wales; 2Mbps for Primary Schools and 8Mbps for Secondary Schools. Pembrokeshire County Council (PCC) were given full autonomy, funding and a firm deadline within which to find a workable solution for the schools in its area. It took the opportunity to improve broadband services for many other Council services too.
Challenges
Pembrokeshire is a rural county situated at Wales’ westernmost extremity and, as such, the availability of sufficient incumbent telecoms infrastructure is poor. Many of the schools that needed connectivity were situated in very isolated locations. Having rejected the feasibility of satellite broadband on the grounds of unreliability, cost and excessive latency, PCC had the choice of selecting an alternative and highly innovative solution, or else settle for BT’s ‘best effort’ solution that was inadequate for its needs.
Solution
Updata installed a managed network connecting broadband access equipment installed at seven local telephone exchanges, out to 125 schools, libraries and council facilities using unbundled SHDSL connections in the last mile. The result was a rapidly rolled out, resilient and cost-effective network solution that has radically improved the speed of broadband communications for teachers, pupils and council workers throughout the County.