East Sussex schools to get broadband for VoIP conferencing

East Sussex county council has launched a multi-million pound scheme to install a broadband network across its 174 primary schools, in order to provide web services such as VoIP.

In partnership with telecoms giant BT, the secure, high-speed broadband network will use a mix of fibre and radio connections and also incorporate the council offices.

"This project will provide schools with a better broadband network at exactly the same cost," said councillor Bob Tidy, cabinet member for e-government on East Sussex council.

"They will have vastly improved e-learning capacity without having a big slice taken off their school budgets. It will also deliver a secure network that will block unsuitable websites getting through to schools."

The network is being developed with the capacity to allow both students and council workers send data and voice communications across the secure system and there are plans for it to be extended to a further 130 council sites across the county.