As the Connectivity Product Manager, few moments are as rewarding as seeing long-term strategy come to life. This week, we reached one of those moments, one that not only marks a technical milestone but sets the tone for the next decade of educational connectivity.
We’ve officially delivered our first 3/10Gbps ethernet leased line to a school site, a significant leap in service capability and a signal of our continued evolution as a specialist ISP for UK education and public sector.
It’s a timely achievement. Next Thursday, 19th June, we celebrate 30 years since becoming an internet service provider — and this installation couldn’t be a more fitting way to honour that legacy.
From 33.6kbps to 10Gbps: The scale of transformation
When we launched in 1995, schools were connecting to the internet at 33.6 kilobits per second. Today, we’re deploying connections that are not just incrementally faster — they’re over 89,000x faster at 3Gbps, with potential to scale to nearly 300,000x faster at 10Gbps.
To put that into perspective:
- In 1995, downloading a full 4K educational documentary series (around 150GB at 4K quality), such as all of the BBC Earth series, would have taken over 440 days on a dial-up modem.
- On our 3Gbps leased line? Under 7 minutes.
- On a full 10Gbps service? Just 2 minutes.
This isn’t just about throughput — it’s about time to access, time to value, and the ability to scale.
More than speed: infrastructure that enables
The real impact of this launch lies in what it unlocks for schools:
- Ultra-high-definition streaming and virtual learning
- Simultaneous, high-density device usage across whole campuses
- Resilient, failover-ready connectivity
- A foundation for cloud-first strategies, IoT adoption, and next-gen edtech platforms
Crucially, this level of service is now affordable and accessible — made possible by a platform we’ve designed and optimised.
The work behind the scenes
While this is the first time we’ve deployed 10Gbps to a single school, we’ve long supported council services and public sector data centres at this tier and beyond.
This deployment marks a shift, extending enterprise-grade infrastructure directly to the classroom, with all the performance, resilience, and scale our customers have come to expect.
It’s a testament to the deep collaboration between our product, engineering, operations, and delivery teams. Designing a platform of this calibre and rolling it out without disruption takes more than technical skill. It takes strategic alignment, operational maturity, and a shared commitment to excellence. Qualities that we put at the service of schools, colleges and multi-academy trusts.
A foundation for the next 30 years
As we mark our 30th year as an ISP, we’re not just looking back — we’re building forward.
The rollout of 10Gbps to schools is the result of long-term investment, informed by our partnerships with educators, trusts, and local authorities across the UK. It’s a reminder that great connectivity isn’t about bandwidth alone it’s about impact, equity, and enabling what’s next.
We’re proud of this milestone. But more importantly, we’re excited about what it makes possible for schools, for public services, and for the future of connected learning.
