A UK-wide provider of networking solutions has secured a £2.6m contract over 10 years to transform the connectivity to 42 schools in and around Scotland’s fourth-largest city.
Dundee City Council’s City Governance Committee has given its approval for Edinburgh-headquartered Commsworld to plan, design, migrate and manage a completely new fibre network service.
The service will be underpinned by a new security solution that hopes to boost digital education provision for pupils across the city.
The proposed new high-speed fibre internet service is replacing Dundee City Council’s ageing infrastructure currently in place in primary and secondary schools in the city which, due to the rapidly increasing use of digital devices and internet for online learning, is under increasing strain.
It will see Commsworld invest in 40km of new fibre infrastructure across Dundee, with schools gainin ?access to a full fibre internet connection with initial speeds at a minimum of 1Gbps and scalable to 10Gbps per school.
The new infrastructure will allow each school to boost their digital learning capabilities, in particular enabling greater use of cloud-based services.
This includes reliability, security and safeguarding support, plus filtered real-time connectivity to ensure all pupils are kept safe online.?
Commsworld will also build in extra capacity that will be able to absorb any future increases in demand in the years to come.
The new fibre infrastructure will be linked to Commsworld’s Optical Core Network (OCN), a multi-million pound network in which it continues to invest, and which was built specifically to boost security and resilience of digital infrastructure to organisations not only in Scotland but also the length and breadth of the UK.
Councillor John Alexander, leader of Dundee City Council, said: “These services will allow digital learning to be upgraded even further in schools and enable greater use of cloud-based services.
“The tender is structured in such a way that spare capacity will be built-in to ensure future growth can be easily accommodated.”
Councillor Stewart Hunter, Convener of Dundee City Council’s Children, Families and Communities Committee, added: “We are keen to achieve Digital Schools Award Scotland (DSAS) status by next summer and, with digital infrastructure such as high-speed fibre internet as a key plank of digital learning, this contract will be an important step on that journey.”
Craig Scott, Public Sector Business Development Director at Commsworld, said: “Commsworld is delighted that Dundee City Council has chosen us to deliver new, resilient and highly-secure fibre infrastructure to 42 schools in the city.
“We have a significant track record of success in this field across the UK.
“Commsworld has similarly delivered enhanced and easily upgradable connectivity to schools in Glasgow, that has totally transformed digital learning – one of many significant improvements made by our company to the city’s digital infrastructure – as well as schools in North Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire.
“Likewise in England, we have recently completed massive improvements to connectivity to 110 schools in Northumberland, delivering a step change in particular for primary and secondary schools in rural locations, which previously had very limited capacity.
“We look forward to delivering similar positive outcomes and transformation for the schools across Dundee.”
