The Move to Ultrafast – 10 Things Schools Need to Know

You may have heard people talking about the move to ‘full fibre,’ ‘FTTP’ or ‘G.Fast.’ But what does this mean and how can it benefit your school? Here we look at ten things you need to know about Ultrafast broadband.


1. Affordable: Ultrafast is the latest Broadband suite of technologies and have been designed to provide incredible bandwidth and connection speeds at affordable prices. Quicker than Superfast and cheaper than Leased Line connections.

2. Up to 1000Mbps: The first technology in the suite, known as FTTP, (Fibre to the Premises), uses fibre cables that go directly to your school, providing Ultrafast speeds up to 1Gbps, (1Gig) (that’s 1000Mbps!), a staggering 12 times faster than Superfast broadband and for not much more than the cost of Superfast.

3. No fibre necessary: The second technology, G.Fast (Faster access to subscriber terminals), uses fibre to the local BT street cabinet and copper from there to your school. A special pod is fitted to the cabinet which alters the speed frequencies of the copper, resulting in a faster and more reliable broadband, providing ultrafast speeds up to 330Mbps.

4. Up to 10Gbps (10Gig): The industry also includes Leased Lines under the Ultrafast Broadband umbrella. Leased Lines provide guaranteed speeds up to a phenomenal 10Gbps (10Gig). With incredible price deals on this high-speed connection, now is a good time for secondary schools and MATs to go “BIG ON 10GIG!”

5. Compelling Prices: For primary schools and smaller secondary schools, Ultrafast broadband means you can now access more appropriate faster speeds at a far more compelling price than a Leased Line. Because G.Fast and FTTP provide such excellent bandwidth capabilities and offer significantly better value for money, now is the time for these schools to go “BIG ON A GIG!”

6. Supports the EdTech strategy: For schools who need to improve their management systems and are migrating their LAN based solutions to cloud services, or for schools wishing to reduce their capital investment in IT. Ultrafast broadband provides an affordable connection that can deliver the faster speeds you require now and unimaginable speeds you might demand in the future. So, ideal for schools working within budget constraints, wanting to develop their use of Cloud Services especially where fibre Leased Lines are too costly.

7. Check availability: The Ultrafast network is brand new with technology being installed at a rapid pace and availability increasing and changing daily. If you would like to know if your school can connect to the Ultrafast network, submit a completed Service Availability Form which can be found here: Ultrafast Service Availability Form.

8. Free customer upgrades: Many of our customers already benefit from this service and are making much needed savings against their budget. As the Ultrafast network expands, we have committed to upgrading all our FTTC customers at no extra charge.* 

9. Quick installations: Installation is quick and easy and can sometimes be achieved in as little as two weeks.

10. Filtering & Security Packages: For an easy, all-in-one option ask our team about DfE Prevent Duty Compliant filtering and award-winning security options.

Where an existing contract is 36 months and more than 12 months in to contract, at point of ordering.

For more information please call 01133 222 333 or click here to get in touch.