REGIONAL BROADBAND GOES TOP OF THE CLASS
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chools in Lancashire and Cumbria are enjoying some of the fastest broadband services in the country thanks to Cumbria and Lancashire Education Online (CLEO), a three way partnership between the two County Councils and Lancaster University.
Via a University subsidiary, Lancaster University Network Services Ltd (LUNS), which holds a full telecoms licence, the University has completed a Local Loop Unbundling operation on 160 telephone exchanges across the two counties to offer ADSL2+ services to CLEO sites.
Via a University subsidiary, Lancaster University Network Services Ltd (LUNS), which holds a full telecoms licence, the University has completed a Local Loop Unbundling operation on 160 telephone exchanges across the two counties to offer ADSL2+ services to CLEO sites.
Using Alcatel-Lucent’s market leading Stinger FS+ and MS+ DSL access aggregators, implemented and maintained by Imtech Telecom, CLEO has connected over 1200 schools, colleges and libraries in the two counties to the National Education Network at uncontended speeds of up to 24 mbps.
This not only provides schools and other education establishments with high-speed internet access,
This not only provides schools and other education establishments with high-speed internet access,
it also lets teachers and lecturers use video and audio clips as part of their classroom teaching; hold lessons via video conference to reach pupils in other schools and colleges; and stream lectures to students in locations off campus.
CLEO, funded by the Lancashire and Cumbria County Councils, is managed by LUNS. One of the key attributes that Lancaster University brings is high speed connection to the internet via the UK university network JANET.
For the selection of the most suitable broadband equipment for use in local exchanges LUNS turned to specialist network systems integrator Imtech Telecom. Imtech proposed the Alcatel-Lucent Stingers and these have transformed the CLEO network design into a scalable, best-of-breed architecture.
Imtech Telecom and LUNS designed a network with a 10 Gbps resilient backbone stretching from the Scottish border in the north to the Merseyside/Manchester border in the south, over 250Km in length and some 10,000 square kilometres in area. This in turn connects to the 89 unbundled telephone exchanges in Lancashire and 71 in Cumbria. The Stinger DSLAM housed in each unbundled exchange supports multiple services on a single platform, allowing CLEO to offer ADSL2+, and in future VDSL, VoDSL and IP multicasting from the same platform.
The CLEO network is one of ten regional education consortia, commissioned by government
CLEO, funded by the Lancashire and Cumbria County Councils, is managed by LUNS. One of the key attributes that Lancaster University brings is high speed connection to the internet via the UK university network JANET.
For the selection of the most suitable broadband equipment for use in local exchanges LUNS turned to specialist network systems integrator Imtech Telecom. Imtech proposed the Alcatel-Lucent Stingers and these have transformed the CLEO network design into a scalable, best-of-breed architecture.
Imtech Telecom and LUNS designed a network with a 10 Gbps resilient backbone stretching from the Scottish border in the north to the Merseyside/Manchester border in the south, over 250Km in length and some 10,000 square kilometres in area. This in turn connects to the 89 unbundled telephone exchanges in Lancashire and 71 in Cumbria. The Stinger DSLAM housed in each unbundled exchange supports multiple services on a single platform, allowing CLEO to offer ADSL2+, and in future VDSL, VoDSL and IP multicasting from the same platform.
The CLEO network is one of ten regional education consortia, commissioned by government
and local authorities, to provide a sustainable, low-cost, high-capacity broadband network that would benefit not only schools, but also other learning institutions across the region, such as universities, colleges, libraries, museums and adult education centres.
Key benefits of CLEO broadband include 1:1 contention, downloads up to 24 mbps, uploading at 3 mbps, a direct connection to the National Education Network and a local caching facility.
Many ISPs are now recognising that service differentiation can only be found through owning their own DSLAMs which is why, according to Ofcom, unbundled lines in the UK have now topped the 1 million mark, and are increasing at 20,000 new lines a week.
The government expects the regional education consortia to be self-financing by 2007, so the next steps for CLEO are to extend the broadband offering to businesses and consumers within the region. Over 95% of the population, even in these rural counties, are in range of CLEO’s broadband services thanks to the Alcatel-Lucent Stinger DSL Access Aggregators which support variable bit rate services.
By utilising the spare capacity on the network, CLEO will be supporting local enterprise and wealth creation, while also helping to lower the overall costs for schools. Imtech Telecom continues to work closely with LUNS allowing the ISP to concentrate on developing new lines of revenue.
Key benefits of CLEO broadband include 1:1 contention, downloads up to 24 mbps, uploading at 3 mbps, a direct connection to the National Education Network and a local caching facility.
Many ISPs are now recognising that service differentiation can only be found through owning their own DSLAMs which is why, according to Ofcom, unbundled lines in the UK have now topped the 1 million mark, and are increasing at 20,000 new lines a week.
The government expects the regional education consortia to be self-financing by 2007, so the next steps for CLEO are to extend the broadband offering to businesses and consumers within the region. Over 95% of the population, even in these rural counties, are in range of CLEO’s broadband services thanks to the Alcatel-Lucent Stinger DSL Access Aggregators which support variable bit rate services.
By utilising the spare capacity on the network, CLEO will be supporting local enterprise and wealth creation, while also helping to lower the overall costs for schools. Imtech Telecom continues to work closely with LUNS allowing the ISP to concentrate on developing new lines of revenue.