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Bury school gets free broadband internet network |
£!40,000 scheme to ensure low income families gain vital access.
Broad Oak Sports College in Bury has provided its students with access to its own free broadband internet network, believed to be the first totally free broadband service launched for a UK school community.
The first of nine wireless internet zones were launched as part of a £140,000 scheme co-funded with Bury Council, and covers around 120 households. Once complete, the network will reach around 1,000 homes of Broad Oak students and those studying at its partner primary schools.
The new network was designed and implemented by Pennine Telecom, with procurement facilitated through Equanet. It feeds off a 100 Mbps 'fat pipe' which runs from the Town Hall into the Broad Oak which then acts as a hub, serving a mesh of transmitters located on and powered by street lights.
The school is able to manage and filter traffic to ensure fair access and speeds, with a daily download maximum of 1Gb.
Bury Council has installed lamp-posts in the first zone which rise above roof-lines to enhance the cloud’s coverage which are now being introduced across the remaining zones to create the full network.
Dubbed Net@BOSC, Broad Oak and Bury Council have funded the scheme solely to ensure low income families in one of the borough’s most deprived areas gain vital internet access.
Broad Oak conducted a physical survey across the school’s core catchment area, installing temporary wireless units to test coverage in the heavily built-up area.
Andrew Roberts, Pennine’s managing director, said: "A key challenge was the density of the urban environment with the planned network covering a sizeable social housing estate, private terraced housing, with tree cover another consideration."
"The initial survey showed we could achieve good coverage and allowed us to plan the full network."
Further information:
Bury Council
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