Case Studies

In Brief

West Cheshire College achieve 2Mbps Megastream-like connection at a fraction of the cost

Project Benefits

As hoped at the start of the project, the improved link has made possible access to the College Information System. This has had a major impact on the effectiveness of administration staff at the catering college.

“Internet access over the old ISDN link was possible, but very slow. This has markedly improved with the 2Mbps EPS 8 based link.”

The aim of the project was to make better use of the funds being spent on the existing ISDN-2 link. This has clearly been achieved. Expenditure on the ISDN link was running at £300 per month. The new EPS 8 circuit costs £62 per month. The cost of support and maintenance of the routers is similar to that for the ISDN equipment. Therefore a cost saving of approximately £240 per month has been achieved and “performance has been improved beyond recognition.”

“The improvements have resulted in much enhanced network services to staff and students on a major campus of the college. All the objectives of the project have been met, including provision of access to student records, enhanced web browsing and cost savings.”

Since the first Baseband EPS 8 link installation, the college has been able to make further savings by using this technology. One of the college’s 2Mbps Megastream connections between Ellesmere Port Library and the Grange site has been replaced with a much cheaper circuit, saving around £2,250 in annual rental charges. The two sites also shared the same BT exchange and were approximately 1km away from each other.

The replacement of an ISDN link with a 2Mbps link between local sites (less than 4km apart) using a BT EPS 8 circuit with DSL modem routers, has provided a low cost 2Mbps reliable connection between sites. The total cost of ownership over the predicted lifetime of the link is very much smaller than any other services available from telecommunications service providers and will result in a net saving of approximately £2,800 per annum on just one circuit.