Connectivity (broadband) standards

The PSBA network has been designed to deliver reliable, high-speed and unlimited data internet connectivity to organisations with large scale digital demands, such as schools. It is widely used across public services in Wales.

PSBA offers a range of value added services that would otherwise need to be independently sourced and maintained if an alternative provider were used. These include built in cyber security controls and, since June 2018, a centrally managed web filtering service (WebSafe). WebSafe supports schools to meet the web filtering and online safeguarding standard. Through aggregated licensing, PSBA delivers enhanced value and easier management, reducing costs compared with schools operating their own filtering solutions.

PSBA also offers a direct, secure connection to local authority education systems, for example, management information system (MIS) or additional learning needs (ALN) information. Using an alternative broadband provider, you may need to implement a secure connection from your school, across the internet and back into your local authority systems. This may incur additional costs or introduce technical complexities that are not required when using PSBA, as local authorities are part of the same connection.

PSBA is the most cost-effective and comprehensive solution for school broadband provision. While commercial packages may appear attractively priced, they often lack the integrated security, filtering and connectivity features provided as standard through PSBA. Schools choosing another provider must ensure the alternative delivers an equivalent level of protection, performance and integration, and must consider the full additional costs associated with replacing PSBA’s built in services.

Significant public investment has been made by Welsh Ministers and local authorities to ensure the PSBA network provides a robust, scalable and high‑value service for the education sector. Any school wishing to move away from PSBA must develop a clear business case and inform Welsh Government through their local authority before any decision is taken. This ensures that all elements of this standard are fully considered and that the school’s learners remain safeguarded.

Please refer to the PSBA website for full details on what is contained within the service level agreement (SLA) and the nature of the value-added services provided.

Schools must use a symmetrical, uncontended fibre optic broadband service that provides equal download and upload speeds and ensures that the connection is not shared with other users. This delivers stable, consistent performance throughout the school day, supporting curriculum delivery, cloud services, digital learning platforms and administrative activity.

While other connectivity options, such as Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP), are available, they are generally unsuitable for school environments due to their limited capacity. Exceptions may apply for schools with fewer than 50 learners or in areas where symmetrical, uncontended services are not yet available.

You should refer to the Routers and switches standards for further information when considering how your broadband connects with your school network.

Schools must have a broadband service with sufficient bandwidth to support their daily operational, administrative and teaching requirements. Adequate bandwidth ensures that data intensive activities, such as live lessons, video calls and meetings, run smoothly without issues such as buffering or latency issues.

Bandwidth provision should reflect the size and usage profile of the school, including all learners, practitioners, administrative staff and community use of school facilities. Schools should carefully consider their local digital environment, taking into account key factors such as device types, user to device ratios across the school community and how users connect to the internet. Schools must also consider future requirements, particularly in line with the expected growth of digital learning tools and cloud services, as outlined in Standard A5.

When reviewing broadband options, schools should also assess any value‑added services offered by providers and refer to Standard A7 to ensure these services align with safeguarding, performance and compliance expectations.

As school digital environments become increasingly media rich, with growing use of audio, video and interactive content by staff and learners across the school site, overall internet usage continues to rise. When selecting a broadband connection, it is important to understand that data limits are not the same as bandwidth. Bandwidth refers to the capacity of a connection at any given time, while data refers to the total amount of information sent and received over a period, typically measured daily or monthly. As digital use increases, data consumption will naturally grow, making truly unlimited data allowances an important consideration.

Broadband services with data limits should be avoided, as they can restrict a school’s ability to use online resources effectively. Practitioners should not need to ration internet use or be concerned about exceeding data caps during lessons.

The PSBA service provides unlimited data usage as standard, ensuring that access to media rich resources does not impact service availability. Schools choosing a non PSBA provider must check whether data limits apply and ensure that the service can support unrestricted use.

As digital tools, services and content are central to education in Wales, a schools’ broadband service must be able to scale quickly to meet growing and changing demands. Bandwidth must be able to increase in line with digital adoption, ensuring that new technologies, online platforms and multimedia resources can be used without disruption.

As schools become increasingly reliant on digital and cloud based services to support teaching, learning and operational activity, they require broadband services that can scale flexibly as demand changes. Being tied to a connection that cannot scale makes it difficult, and potentially costly, to adapt to evolving requirements.

The PSBA network is designed to grow with schools’ digital needs, providing a scalable service that can adapt over time. Schools using other providers must ensure that their chosen service can offer the same ability to expand capacity as demand increases. 

Internet connectivity is a core utility, essential to delivering the digital curriculum and supporting day‑to‑day school operations. As schools become increasingly reliant on cloud based systems and online services, loss of connectivity can have an immediate and significant impact on learning, teaching and safeguarding. Schools therefore require a broadband service that offers a high level of reliability, with a minimum availability of 99.9% and a guaranteed restoration of service within 6 hours in the event of a total service failure.

Clear SLAs provide assurance that faults will be prioritised and resolved within agreed timeframes and allow schools to plan effectively for incidents outside their control. Schools should review their broadband SLA to understand the provider’s commitments in relation to uptime, fault response and fix times, proactive monitoring, escalation arrangements, and support availability.

Please refer to the PSBA website for full details on what is contained within the SLA and the nature of the value-added services it entails.

Clear and well defined SLAs also support schools in meeting their continuity of learning responsibilities. Schools should have appropriate plans in place to ensure learning can continue during unexpected or unplanned events, such as loss of connectivity due to power outages or wider infrastructure failures. Having contractual SLAs in place gives schools greater certainty around recovery times, enabling more effective planning and informed decision making to minimise disruption and support continuity of learning.

Many broadband services, especially PSBA, include essential value‑added features designed to protect school networks and safeguard learners. These may include firewalls, distributed denial‑of‑service (DDoS) protection, web filtering tools and other security controls that support compliance and safe access to online resources.

Schools must understand which value‑added services are included in their current broadband contract before considering a change of provider. Moving to a lower‑cost service may result in the loss of critical safeguarding and threat‑management tools, potentially exposing learners and staff to unnecessary risks.

Any new broadband provider must deliver the same level and quality of protection as the current service, ensuring that all security, web filtering and safeguarding requirements continue to be met.