Schoolkids get £22.6m fat pipe boost from NTL

NTL has won a £22.6m contract to migrate the Hertfordshire Grid for Learning to broadband.

The company will broadband-enable a total of 55 schools and other educational establishments and 10 residential children's homes. NTL has already switched on the fat pipe for 245 schools in the area.

Under the five-year deal, NTL will upgrade 313 junior, primary and nursery schools that are already broadband-enabled schools to a faster connection – switching them up to 2MB by March 2005, with 85 secondary schools boosted to 10Mb access by March 2006.

The broadband grid will enable the schools to run additional applications – such as remote tuition and videoconferencing – and make some online content more accessible by speeding up download times.

NTL will also provide a helpdesk and technical assistance to the schools in the county.

John Warwick, deputy head at St Luke's school in Hertfordshire, said that broadband was opening up new possibilities for learning.

"Not only has [broadband] boosted our ICT lessons, it has also opened up new applications and resources to other subject areas... We are currently looking at a range of new projects such as online broadcasting, which simply wouldn't be possible without broadband," he said in a statement.