ntl delivers broadband to NI education sector

Leading broadband provider, ntl, has connected 23 further and higher educational institutions to the Northern Ireland Regional Area Network (NIRAN), it confirmed today.

Institutions linked by the network include 16 further education colleges, Queens University Belfast and the University of Ulster, two University Colleges, the Armagh Observatory, the Department of Agriculture training colleges, and the Economic Research Institute for Northern Ireland.

David Armstrong, Area Sales Director for Northern Ireland at ntl’s business division, said: “The implementation of a regional broadband network is fundamental to the wider development of Northern Ireland’s education sector.

“With 23 sites now connected, students and teaching staff across the region are enjoying a wide range of benefits that really improve the way they work. The feedback from them has been very positive and we are delighted to be involved in this exciting project.”

NIRAN Chairman, Nigel Macartney, Director of Information Services at the University of Ulster, added: “Until NIRAN was implemented we were effectively running out of capacity, which severely inhibited our ability to introduce new and exciting education applications. Working with ntl we have been able to create a long-term communications infrastructure that allows us to offer a truly leading-edge learning environment.”

NIRAN is an advanced broadband network offering high levels of bandwidth capacity. Connected sites now enjoy high-speed access to a wide range of education resources and content, plus exciting new applications such as high-quality video-conferencing, and multi-media streaming services that enhance learning, training and collaborative research.

Users of NIRAN benefit from access to the Internet and to JANET, the UK-wide education and research network. In connecting to JANET, NIRAN also links into SuperJANET – the UK national education backbone.

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