How does the Northern Grid broadband service compare with cheaper retail broadband services advertised in the press?
The Northern Grid broadband network and other home or business broadband connections are entirely different and designed for very different purposes. Home use broadband connections are restricted. They are shared with up to 50 other users. The bandwidth for sending information from your computer to others is also very restricted. A Northern Grid connection provides your school with 2, 10 or even 100 mbps in both directions. These are much faster than home use broadband. The Northern Grid network is designed to cope with multiple users in many schools within the region. The Northern Grid broadband connections allow schools to connect to their LA, to each other and to other broadband enabled schools via the National Education Network, as well as to the Internet. The National Education Network, or NEN, is regarded by the DfES as crucial in delivering key online educational services to schools, including transmitting of data, important national resources and services such as safe video con
