Truespeed Bring FREE Full Fibre to 50 Bath and Somerset Schools

Some 50 schools in rural parts of Bath and Somerset will soon gain access to “free ultrafast broadband connectivity for life,” which stems from UK ISP Truespeed and their on-going deployment of a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network in the area.

The provider, which is supported by an investment of £75m from Aviva Investors (here), currently aims to cover 75,000 premises in parts of rural South West England by the end of 2021. After that they also hold an aspiration of reaching 200,000 by around 2025 (this is a demand-led deployment where 30% of a community usually needs to sign-up first).

As a community-focused business, Truespeed also provides schools passed by its new network with a “free gigabit-capable service.” Marksbury School, Abbot’s Way School and Churchill Academy are already connected to their network and all 31 schools that make up the Bath & Wells Multi Academy Trust will come on stream soon, ensuring 7,800 pupils and over 1,400 staff benefit from their service.

Evan Wienburg, CEO of Truespeed, said:

“Our vision goes beyond delivering full fibre gigabit-capable broadband to businesses and homes in harder to reach areas; we’re also pledging free broadband for life to schools passed by our network. With our free service, teachers and school children in parts of the country left behind by the national providers are benefitting from reliable connectivity and ultrafast broadband speeds that are vital for education today.”

Julie Player, Head Teacher at Marksbury C of E Primary School, said:

“Truespeed’s ultrafast broadband service has transformed school life for pupils and staff. Before we went live with this service our broadband connectivity was so unreliable that we couldn’t really rely on online learning resources. Now teachers can now make the most of cloud-based storage for lesson planning, as well as a whole host of valuable cloud-based teaching aids accessible via interactive smart boards during lessons.

Pupils also get to do more real-world learning in class – an important part of the curriculum – by using school iPads to access the internet and connect with local businesses. We have also been able to resurrect our dedicated ICT lessons.”

Reliable, ultrafast broadband is now a must-have for schools as they increasingly rely on digital technologies and cloud-based storage and services to plan and teach the curriculum. Meanwhile the ISP is current making progress on one of their largest builds to date, which is seeing their FTTP network rollout reach across around 7,000 premises in the tiny cathedral city of Wells.