East Sussex – a rural county
East Sussex is a county of many contrasts – the unspoilt beauty of the South Downs, wetland areas, rural villages, historic market towns and coastal resorts. More than 60 per cent of the county is designated as an area of outstanding natural beauty. As one of the most rural counties in the United mKingdom, East Sussex County Council recognised that embarking on a Next Generation Network (NGN) programme for upgrading voice and data capabilities between its council offices and schools, would present some special challenges, not only for its ICT team, but also for the suppliers chosen to deliver the solution.
The objective
As well as upgrading voice and data capabilities between its offices, the council wanted to deliver accelerated access to the county's learning platform for its primary schools, providing the very best educational environment for its students. This is in line with the government initiative to provide all primary schools with a 2MB broadband connection and all secondary schools with a 10Mb broadband connection. Creating the best solution The council approached BT for a solution, but it quickly became clear that owing to the rural terrain, it would be too costly to create the new network using fixed lines only. BT therefore looked to the market for alternatives and contacted MLL Telecom because of its industry experience with wireless based solutions.
MLL and BT then designed a network using a combination of wireless links and fixed lines, to create the best solution to achieve the council's goals at an affordable price.
Delivering the best solution
MLL and BT have now rolled out a network that contains 150 fixed links over wireless connections, to deliver the voice and data capabilities required. A variety of mounts were used at the schools and council buildings – roof mounted, wall mounted, wooden telegraph poles and even a flagpole at a Cricket Club, to be sympathetic to the environments they were placed in.
John Miller, BT Head of Complex Networks comments, "MLL has proved a valuable partner in delivering hard to reach connections to enable BT to deliver a great service at a price which is competitive for our customers".
The benefits
Schools have enjoyed many benefits from the upgraded network. They now have vastly improved access to e-learning platforms and as these evolve and require increased bandwidth, the solution can be scaled to accommodate this need. The new network also benefits the wider community by providing equal access for children who do not have broadband at home. There is also the opportunity through the fixed infrastructure to exploit emerging community initiatives.
Martin Hall, Programme Manager BT says, "The Next Generation Network programme and its fixed wireless sub-project were critical to East Sussex County Council's vision for delivering an enterprise wide solution that enabled its users to have access to high quality voice and data services. The success of the NGN programme can be measured by the 5000+ users now able to access these services. Specifically for the fixed wireless project a unique blend of skills from the council, BT and MLL were brought together to successfully deliver the connectivity required to support access to the data and voice services."
The council has enjoyed a number of benefits from the NGN including greater levels of flexibility, greater bandwith capacity and increased speed of delivery. It has enabled other parallel projects, for example, IP Telephony can now be run over the fixed wireless connections so that schools won't need a telephone switchboard. The network also enables the council to meet the shared services agenda, which encourages councils to share services with other local government organisations. So for example, the network could also be made available to other council offices, primary care trusts and emergency services.
Councillor Bob Tidy, lead member for e-government at East Sussex, said: "This project has delivered on all counts. We've improved school internet and computer technology and we're making it easier and cheaper for residents to contact us."
Future developments
MLL and BT are committed to working in partnership with East Sussex County Council to further develop and run the network over its lifetime. In this way MLL and BT can continue to ensure that the network meets the changing needs of the Council for years to come.
"The NGN we have created, together with BT, will enable many organisations within East Sussex's local authority organisation to enjoy the benefits of shared network services both today and in the future." said Eddie Minshull
The NGN has been designed to be highly resilient and scalable, to keep pace with the changing needs of the council. An example of the scalability of the network is that it was easily upgraded to deliver a 100Mb connection to the East Sussex Music Academy, to meet the higher capacity it required for downloading music and video. The council is looking for further opportunities where the NGN can provide affordable solutions in the future.
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