Alncom Teach Kids in Northumberland How to Build FTTP Broadband

Rural broadband ISP Alncom has today informed ISPreview that they’ve completed the roll-out of a new FTTP broadband network to the rural villages of Craster and Embleton (inc. surrounding areas) in Northumberland (England), covering 1,057 properties. But as part of that they’ve also been teaching local school children how to build the network.

The network project, which has also connected the local village halls with free connections and public WiFi, was part-funded by BDUK’s Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS). But the operator has also been able to do even more than this for the local communities as part of the ‘World Wide Web from a Wood and Classroom Without Walls’ programme.

Alncom has essentially been donating their time to teaching school children in Northumberland new skills this month. This has been done through the Clarty Commandos, which is a ‘Forest School’ that was set up in the grounds of Howick Estate near Alnwick, where children of all ages can experience learning in a unique environment, with a focus on practical rather than academic activities.

Alncom were approached by founder Mark Tuff to devise some training, so the students could learn some of the skills required to deploy fibre broadband. The idea being that students could gain an understanding of how the internet gets into their homes.

The provider felt that it was also a great opportunity to actually build a fibre network into the wood where the Forest School is based and used the opportunity for the Duchess High School students to “build it themselves“. A charity project from start to finish.

Students from Alnwick’s Duchess Community High School Development Group 2 were given an overview of network design and from this they were able to carry out a site survey, design the network and create ‘job packs’. Under very close supervision, the students physically built 250m of fibre network, connecting the Forest School to Alncom’s core network, using a mole plough and by hand. They installed duct, built a chamber, spliced joints then set-up WiFi to the site.

Lawrie Stevenson, Director of Alncom, said:

“Team building, life-long skills and valuable experience for the students was a priority and we are delighted to say that all the students were outstanding and loved the outside school”.

Mark Tuff, Founder of Clarty Commandos, said:

“Alncom are amazing, they’ve helped us several times as well as this fantastic project. They helped after Storm Arwen, a devastating fire and we’ve never had to ask for help, they’re just there. They know what’s going on and they know how to help.”

Managing Director of Alncom Stephen Pinchen said; “As a company we are keen on helping the community and we like to help in anyway we can. A special well done to Lawrie who has excelled in this very special classroom without walls.”

In the past we’ve seen a number of network operators getting children involved with such deployments as part of their education (example). But going from that to actually having them build a significant chunk of new network in order to connect their own school is quite a feat (we’ll resist the desire for puns about child labour). Now if they could just teach them how to fill out Openreach’s PIA forms and deal with BDUK’s systems..