Back-up Broadband Connection

About the Service

This service works alongside your primary connection and is provided as an add-on service to your Broadband and Online Services Bundle, enabling schools who are seeking to meet the DfE's "Digital and Technology Standards in Schools and Colleges" to purchase a suitable backup broadband service.

While fibre broadband failures are rare, losing internet connectivity can significantly disrupt your school, which increasingly relies on online solutions and cloud-based services. To meet the DfE standard your school will need a permanent Back-Up Broadband solution in place.

Our Back-up Broadband add-on service is suitable for any school, or multi-academy trust, and provides a solution that is managed, monitored, and always ready to deliver continued access in the event of a primary broadband connection failure. It ensures peace of mind by providing high availability access to the internet and online resources, preventing disruptions in the event of a failure of your primary broadband connection.

Recognising the critical role of broadband and the investment required to implement a permanent Back-up Broadband connection, we also include a free emergency backup service in our Broadband and Online Service Bundle. This is a temporary backup which may be deployed by our engineers as part of our incident response when the fix time for your primary connection is expected to be extensive. This helps minimise disruption but is limited in the bandwidth available. Please refer to the Broadband and Online Services Bundle Service Definition for more information.

What are the benefits?

Bandwidth – Based on our standard broadband bandwidth options our Back-up Broadband service provides adequate bandwidth to enable busy schools to work and teach effectively online.
Fully managed – our Back-up Broadband service includes all configuration and security, and options to ensure that you are able to meet broadband internet standards set by the DfE.
Highly Available - Reduction in downtime, should the school's main broadband connection fail it will ensure disruption to teaching and learning is kept to a minimum.
Cloud Availability – Increased availability to critical cloud-based systems that use the internet E.g., Microsoft 365, digital telephony.
Customisable - Options to add increasing levels of resilience and reductions to potential single point of failure, subject to budget availability.
Highly resilient – Connects to our CLEO Broadband network that has multiple data centres and connections to both the JANET network, and key internet service provider exchange locations.
Back-up broadband works with MAT WAN, and School WAN – If your school or multi-academy trust uses our private WAN with your Broadband and Online Services Bundle, you'll be pleased to know that the back-up broadband connectivity is still fully supported!

What's Included?

Service Features

Feature	Description	Options
Back-up Broadband Connectivity	Additional broadband connection for your school. Connects to our CLEO Broadband Network and provides the same Web Filtering controls as the school's primary connection. No changes within the school's local network to support the service. Reduces the risk of total internet failure. Reduces the risk to your school's critical systems that use the internet.	Depending on your school's requirement, we will identify the options available for connectivity and recommend a solution.
Back-up Router Option	A second router to act as a failover to the primary. A second router is recommended to remove the router as a single point of failure.	Can be installed within the existing comms cabinet (space permitting) or an alternative cabinet on-site. Can be installed at another site or building along with the back-up connection for enhanced resilience.
Site Survey	Our desk-based surveys are free of charge. An on-site survey may also be required to establish exact routings and confirm whether any Third-Party excess construction charges would apply in addition to our standard installation charges. This would be established when we receive your order. (All surveys may be chargeable.)
Installation and Setup	Education Digital Services will appoint a project manager to ensure the installation of your backup connection is correctly delivered. Installation is subject to lead times and installation charges.