School will miss out on initiative (From Penarth Times)

School will miss out on initiative

PENARTH schoolchildren will miss out on a new initiative to get schools onto the fast track internet connection.

The project is run jointly by Easynet and BT Wholesale.

Each school has would have been able to benefit from businesses and communities collecting credits called 'Splats'.

If enough are brought in the school could get free broadband connection. This is a saving of £2,000.

With the new connection internet access is immediate and charges are lower. There are only 20 percent of schools that have their own connection.

As Penarth does not have its own internet broadband for the area it cannot take advantage.

Head of information technology at St Cyres School, Penarth, Peter Lewis said: "It would be good if we could have access to broadband because we use the internet more and more.

There is so much we can use the internet for."

He added that if the school can not get on to the broadband the usual way they will look at a satellite link up.

At the school there are 250 work stations which are used for educational purposes.

It is only a matter of time before the school finds some way of getting on to the quicker connection.

Without the required trigger level of people registering their interest in broadband, there is no prospect of getting the service.

The benefits to schools and members of the public are very good.

It opens up a new world of information which can be accessed 140 times faster.

Now the internet is the educational tool that every school uses for most subjects.

As mentioned in previous articles in the Penarth Times the people of Penarth want to get broadband.

Trigger level is now at 225 so there is still a lot to do to get to 400 if the area wants the faster service.

Are you backing the Broadband campaign - contact Charles at the Times with your story.