Schools' Net initiative wins award

Nelson's groundbreaking Loop IT project has notched up yet another success.

The fibre-optic network, started by the region's schools with the support of Network Tasman and the Ministry of Education, last week brushed aside significant players in the telecommunications industry to gain a Telecommunication Users Association of New Zealand innovation award.

TUANZ recognised the Loop as New Zealand's next-generation fibre-optic network of the year. Judges said it "allowed the digital classroom to be plugged into the world".

Loop chairman Charles Newton said it was "fantastic" to receive the accolade, particularly as a group of enthusiasts footing it against experts.

The Loop began in 2004, linking schools throughout Nelson and Marlborough with an Internet connection 20,000 times faster than the standard broadband. Network Tasman provided the cable and ongoing support worth more than $750,000 since the project started.

The Loop now has 29 schools, from Collingwood to Queen Charlotte Sound and including the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology, linked in.

"The best thing probably for schools is it's meant they can have a high-quality Internet connection at a cheap and fixed price. By collaborating together, we've been able to buy the pipe."

That's opened the door for numerous initiatives such as a shared video library for the schools involved, and work is under way to offer a closed-circuit television system package that could monitor school grounds.

Mr Newton said he never envisaged how big the Loop would become when it started.

"If we'd known how much work it would be, we might have thought twice about it."

But it needed to be done and it now provided a lead for other regions around the country, he said.

"We've done a number of talks and are supporting other areas starting to do the same thing."

It is hoped the project will eventually extend to more than 60 schools across the wider region, and also into marae and other non-commercial organisations. "There's certainly some potential there."

The project cost was likely to be about $2 million by the time it reached that point but it had also involved a "huge amount of goodwill and pro bono" services from those involved, Mr Newton said.

Last year, the Loop won a Computerworld Excellence Award for use of information communication technology in education.

- © Fairfax NZ News