Virgin Launches Fibre Schools Network In London

A new £200 million public sector network has been launched today by Virgin Media Business and the London Grid for Learning, that will reportedly provide a secure and comprehensive communications infrastructure for schools across the Capital.

The network, known as the LondonPSN, will build on Virgin’s existing fibre optic broadband network, offering speeds of 10Mbps up to 10Gbps. While the first stage of the rollout will focus on providing services to 2,800 schools in London, future stages could see schools in other UK cities benefiting from faster, more secure networks – as well as local councils and other public sector organisations.

“There has never been a more important time than this to use London schools’ collective buying power to achieve the best value services,” said Brian Durrant (left), chief executive of the London Grid for Learning Trust. “A dynamic and technically advanced learning environment will be at the heart of every London school in the future and, with this framework in place, a new era of learning can begin.”

A quiet revolution

Durrant explained that people no longer question the need for broadband in schools, but said that the Internet is “both wonderful and dangerous”, and that the next step is to provide a “discrete separate secure network that is safe for children”. He also described children as “digital natives”, who are used to living in a media-rich environment.

With the new public sector network, primary and secondary schools will be able to offer digital learning environments – using interactive whiteboards, e-learning tools and ubiquitous access to the Internet. Children could even be allowed to use video conferencing technology to join lessons via webcam, or access media resources through a dedicated “SchoolTube” video library. “There’s a quiet revolution going on,” said Durrant.

Virgin will be able to offer a fast Internet service to schools in all 33 London boroughs because it has a majority of consumer customers and its network is underused in the day, a fact which also contributed to its launch of Big Red Internet for business. The new five-year contract with the London Grid for Learning will see Virgin replace the current legacy network provided by Synetrix.

Public sector networks

The news follows an announcement by Virgin Media Business in November 2010 that it has signed a Deed of Understanding to provide its fibre-optic network to underpin the UK government’s public sector network.

The PSN was planned by the previous Labour government, which in its ICT Strategy proposed setting up a network that was “secure, based on open standards, interoperable, energy efficient and competitive”. This would replace the current hotchpotch of public sector networks, which were described as “fragmented, unreliable and expensive”.

According to Virgin, PSNs create economies of scale which can deliver substantial cost savings, at a time when the typical government department is looking at reducing its budget by 19 percent over the next four years.

“The LondonPSN is at the heart of how the public sector in London will procure and use the newest and best technology effectively,” said Mark Heraghty, managing director of Virgin Media Business.  “Sharing services is not just about reducing costs and improving services, but allowing different departments and organisations to use technology to work together efficiently.”

New research by market intelligence Kable firm finds that public sector investment on ICT is set to remain steady over the next five years in the face of the government’s spending cuts. While the forecast for 2015-16 shows the sector is in the midst of a marginal decline, this trend should be reversed to provide mild growth by the end of the period.