Every Irish secondary school to get 100Mbps broadband by 2014

bealtine

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/comms/item/25654-digsch2010

By 2014 every secondary school in Ireland will have 100Mbps broadband, Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte TD and Education Minister Ruairi Quinn TD said today. The national rollout will see 200 more schools connected by September and a further 450 by 2014.

The programme follows a successful pilot of 78 secondary schools that saw teaching and learning levels improve through digital technology.

The rollout consists of three stages:

the first phase of 200 schools will be complete by September 2012

the second phase will be connected in 2013

the final phase of 250 schools will be connected by 2014

The Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources will spend €11m on the overall project as well as contributing €10m between 2013 and 2015.
The remaining costs of €20m are expected to come from the Department of Education & Science, which will also fund the running costs into the future.

HEAnet has built and will maintain the network on behalf of the Department of Communications, Energy & Natural Resources. The National Centre for Technology in Education (NCTE) is charged with the integration of ICT within schools. They will also provide front line support for the staff of the schools.

ESB Telecoms has provided backhaul from regional locations to Dublin.
Digital workforce of the future

Education Minister Ruair Quinn said: "Our secondary schools need industrial strength broadband. Students' experience of using technology in their everyday lives must be reflected in their learning experiences in schools. Use of ICT is no longer a separate subject.

“We must encourage students and teachers to integrate the use of ICT with the traditional teaching methods for all subjects. In this way we will prepare the digital workforce of the future," Quinn said.

“We need to ensure that appropriate digital technology and high-speed internet are in place in our schools as a basic building block to deliver a 21st century learning experience to all learners.

"This major ICT investment in our education system follows on from the commitment in the Programme for Government to incorporate the integration of ICT in teaching and learning across the curriculum and investing in broadband development to ensure schools have access to modern high-speed networks", he added.

The rollout plans were unveiled at Colaiste Bride in Clondalkin, one of the schools involved in the first rollout.

“The opportunity this morning to see how class room learning can be revolutionised by the availability and adoption of high speed broadband, strengthens my conviction that we are delivering a strategic and worthwhile project that will deliver significant long-term results from both an economic and social perspective.

“Despite our current economic difficulties, this significant investment in our current and future generation of school-children is money well spent," Rabbitte said.

bealtine

Another recycled announcement?

MagicMarker

You sure it's not 100Mbps between all the schools?

watty

At one stage about 1/2 the schools were on Satellite.

At 100Mbps I doubt Satellite could serve more than 10 or 20 schools with contention. About 2 or 3 without contention.

I wonder what the SLA is?

Easily done in Cable areas or the few sites near fibre. Be interesting to see how they do the last 20% to 45%

byhookorbycrook

A nicer way of saying that schools have crappy broadband at the moment. Why is it for secondary only?

Morlar

I will believe it when I see it.

They do mean one 100mb connection per pupil/per PC right ? Not like one 100mb connection per school right ?

watty

No, it's 100Mbps per school.
You used to be lucky if your school got 3Mbps for the whole school.

watty

I think some of the Primary schools need teachers, indoor toilets and computers too.

Also book schemes. They should stop the publishers publishing once off workbooks and changing text books needlessly and Schools should buy the books and re-use them each day. Kids should only take home books needed for homework which should be minimal for Primary school (it's of little value for most kids).

oscarBravo

watty wrote: »

Easily done in Cable areas or the few sites near fibre. Be interesting to see how they do the last 20% to 45%

Licensed radio. Should be fun.

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

Why is it for secondary only?

Numbers. There are far, far too many primary schools and many of them are ridiculously remote. It's somewhat feasible to do all secondary schools; not a hope of doing all primaries.

drunkmonkey

Fantastic idea, but what about giving it to the towns around the country where the schools are to create hi tech jobs for the students when they leave.

Cart before the horse again. :rolleyes:

watty

oscarBravo wrote: »

Licensed radio. Should be fun.

Need about 20MHz to 60MHz of spectrum per 100Mbps of traffic, depending on power, aerial size and distance.

Since it's for a whole school, it really needs to be practically no contention, i.e. 1:1

Point to Point Microwave Links (serious licenced Radio) will of course do even up to 1Gbps. 100Mbps on a Link is fairly standard.

Fun for someone.

PogMoThoin

My 2 children go to a secondary school that already has a 100mbit link, it's the way every school should be.

thegills

For the pilot of 78 schools, 100Mb un-contended was provided over fibre or PTP licensed microwave radio. The same will apply to the first phase of 200 schools so this is not a satellite BB play
Traffic from all schools is delivered to the nearest HEAnet PoP where it then jumps onto ESBT national fibre network.

oscarBravo

thegills wrote: »

Traffic from all schools is delivered to the nearest HEAnet PoP where it then jumps onto ESBT national fibre network.

Not all schools, no. ESB doesn't have a national monopoly on fibre.

thegills

Fair point Oscar Bravo. Most regional HEAnet PoP's are connected to ESBT fibre but not all. The point is however that 100Mb clear is delivered to each of the 78 schools

thebman

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Fantastic idea, but what about giving it to the towns around the country where the schools are to create hi tech jobs for the students when they leave.

Cart before the horse again. :rolleyes:

Where is it stated that town schools are to provide hi-tech jobs for students?

clohamon

bealtine wrote: »

Another recycled announcement?

He announced it again this morning - on Morning Ireland.

"The biggest revolution in teaching in a long time".