LGfL Services

The LGfL is a 'Consortium' or group of LEAs which have acted together, as 'The London Grid for Learning Trust' to procure on a regional basis broadband services for schools. These services include broadband connectivity (the connections, or 'pipes') that make up the LGfL Network, the managed services which make the use of the Network safe and secure (e.g URL filtering and Email scanning) and services like email hosting and web hosting. All 33 London LEAs are members of the LGfL Consortium. For more information read the LGfL Evolution

It is a not-for-profit company and charitable trust called 'The London Grid for Learning Trust' which was created in April 2001 by the LEAs as a special vehicle for the purpose of procuring and managing broadband services, of which all London LEAs are members. The company employs a Chief Executive, Content Manager, Operations Manager + support staff, and is administered by an Executive Board of Trustees who are mainly CEOs of London LEAs and the Convenors of four 'Sector Groups' which meet bi-monthly and are attended by representatives of the LEAs, mainly ICT Managers, Advisers or Inspectors. For more information see the Steering Groups section.

It is the physical network, which has been especially created to serve London?s schools. The network is large, powerful and employs leading edge technology. At its heart are two core locations linked at 20Gbps which each accommodate Juniper M160 switches providing 160Gb of switch fabric (this is comparable to equipment used by national internet services providers), and banks of servers. The network extends out in resilient fibre loops to the suburbs where aggregation points or 'points of presence' provide for low cost fibre optic connections to schools. The network, which is more than capable of supporting London?s 2600 schools at high bandwidth, has been built and is managed for LGfL Trust by Equinox Converged Solutions Ltd.

The LGfL Portal is also sometimes referred to (slightly confusingly) as 'the LGfL'. The Portal provides access to a growing body of on-line educational materials, and a range of personal communication facilities.

A full list of the services and suppliers can be found in the Network Services section.