School bridges digital divide with a national first

Date published: 22 February 2010

A state secondary school in Bury has become the first in England to provide its students with access to its own free broadband internet network.

Broad Oak Sports College has launched the first of nine wireless internet zones – or clouds - as part of a £140,000 scheme co-funded with Bury Council.

The first wi-fi cloud covers around 120 households but 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 locally based telecoms, data and radio communications specialist, Pennine Telecom, with procurement facilitated through education IT specialist, Equanet which is also located in Bury.

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 set at a generous 1Gb.

Dubbed Net@BOSC the network is believed to be the first totally free broadband service to be launched for a UK school community. 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.

Neil O’Connor, head teacher at Broad Oak, said: “Net@BOSC is an incredibly efficient way to bridge the digital divide because the running costs are minimal and the administration light.

“We simply give students a user name and password and they can connect. There are no vouchers to redeem or landline or cable connections to be installed so take-up is set to be very high. That’s important because we do not want any obstacles placed in the way of our students accessing and using e-learning techniques and resources. There are other aspects to take into account too, including access to social networking which is such an integral part of many young people’s lives these days.”

Larrissa Burton, aged 13, agreed. The Year 8 student had no internet access after her brother left home in August 2009. Now, having also secured a free laptop from the school via the Home Access scheme, her life has changed. “I get home from school and go straight on the internet. I use the wi-fi for Facebook, homework and games. Before I would have to use the school library to find things out for my homework but now I can research on the internet. Without it life would be a bit boring too. It’s good because I get to go on games and everything and it’ll be really useful in future with my school work.”

Evolution of the scheme dates back to 2008 when Broad Oak began supplying free and discounted laptops to students under the Government’s Home Access scheme. The school’s IT hardware provider Equanet first suggested the idea, leading Pennine Telecom to be commissioned to produce a desktop survey and outline costings.

Having been given the green light it then 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 high number of users to be served was also a test. The initial survey showed we could achieve good coverage and allowed us to plan the full network. Now we have the first zone up and running we’re more than confident that Net@BOSC will deliver a service equal to, if not better than, those offered by commercial internet service providers.”

Bury Council has installed lamp-posts in the first zone which rise above roof-lines to enhance the cloud’s coverage. These are now being introduced across the remaining zones to create the full network.

The council is enthusiastically backing the project. Its chief executive, Mark Sanders, said: "We are delighted to play a leading role in what is a truly pioneering scheme. This project is all about bridging the digital divide so that young people in poorer areas don't fall behind in today's ever changing technological world. We hope that it will help our students with both their educational achievements and their social networking opportunities."

Other students’ comments:

Tyler Sutherland, Year 7, aged 12
Tyler previously accessed the internet through a contract service supplied through his family’s telephone and television provider. “The wireless is much quicker than the old ‘phone line. I now get speeds in the 40s. The signal is good all around the house. Before if I wanted to use the internet do my homework I had to do it in the living room and the telly might be on in the background. Now I can do it where I want to do it. There’s six of us in the house, my mum, my dad, my brother and my two sisters so before there was always a bit of a fight to get on the internet! This will really help me with my school work.”

James Cartmel, Year 7 student, aged 12
James now accesses the internet via the free service provided to him and his family by Broad Oak for studying, surfing and socially. The school is looking to provide a signal booster which will enable a strong connection throughout the family home. “I used to only be able to get on the internet with a dongle that my cousin, who lives with us, was given by my uncle. I now get a speed of up to 36 (mbps) but normally between one and 11. I use the internet sometimes to surf on games websites or to do homework. This will make doing my school work easier. Having the internet is important.”