With Intelco in the hands of a receiver and the failed telecom company still wallowing in US$50 million in debt, most would agree Intelco was a dream. But while it lasted Intelco offered us hope of competition, lower rates, and for students they donated thousands of computers, promising free access to the web through a school wide area network or "SWAN." We now know there isn't competition and neither lower rates. But tonight in a 7NEWS investigation, Keith Swift found that also gone is the company's promise of internet to schools, leaving thousands of students searching for a connection.
[Archive Footage from 2002 of Cordel Hyde and Jose Coye Cutting Ribbon at opening of Computer Lab at Leo Bradley Library.]
That was the fanfare then but this is now: the microwave receivers are still up but the internet is down. Today, this student at St. John's Vianney couldn't access the internet and neither can students at Queen Street Baptist School.
Herman Lambey, Principal Queen Street Baptist School
"At present we do not have any internet. It has been off from June of this year."
And these schools aren't the exception, they are the rule. All the schools which 7NEWS contacted (list proceeds this story) and who were a part of the SWAN project are unable to log on to the internet.
So what became of the 'School Wide Area Network' that we had heard so much about? Our search for answers led us here to New Road and Intelco's office and this tower which once served as the hub for SWAN. Well if 1+1=2 then when Intelco collapsed earlier this year so did the SWAN project.
Herman Lambey,
"Well with the closure of Intelco, that is the problem so we don't have any internet."
KS: Have you been asking questions about what went wrong and if so what have you been told?
Herman Lambey,
"The response has been the same. We talk to different principals from primary schools and we don't have any internet access and everybody gives the same reason: closure of Intelco."
But even before the closure of Intelco, across town St. Martin Deporres Primary School was already having problems with the SWAN project. The school's computer administrator is Winston Eligio and he says, sure they were given 20 computers for free but along with the gift came problems whether it was bad net connections or just plain old bad computers.
Winston Eligio, Computer Administrator St. Martin's Deporres School
"We were having hardware problems. First the system worked perfectly, pretty fast, it was working perfectly. And after a while the service started dwindling, you would come in one day and the service would be slow and the other day you wouldn't have any service. Then we started having hardware problems where our ROR box went in and they took it in to service and they brought it back and ever since then we weren't receiving much of a service."
St. Martin's is however one of the few schools we contacted and the only public primary school which has on its own and from its own pocket, paid for internet service from a another service provider.
Winston Eligio,
"We are using a new service provider. As you know we were hooked up to Intelco and since that service is no longer available to us we looked for other service providers and presently we are using a cable company, specifically Baymen. School administrators and managers saw the need for us to maintain internet here at the school and so administration stepped in and they decided to keep up our internet service through another service provider."
St. Martin's is an exception and most schools like St. John's Vianney and Queen Street Baptist and countless others have dozens of computers sitting in deserted computer labs. There is no internet connection, at least not any free one, and Principal Lambey says it is a necessity but not one they can necessarily afford.
Herman Lambey, Principal Queen Street Baptist School
"Yes we want back our internet but we cannot afford to go elsewhere to pay for it so we need help from somewhere. The teachers had access to the computers plus the children so whatever work we have, especially in the area of science, the children were allowed to come into the computer room and they get information from the internet. It helped very much where research was concerned and it has improved their scholastic ability."
KS: So they can no longer log on to the net?
Herman Lambey,
"No. It is no longer possible."
KS: _But the computer lab is still being used?
Herman Lambey,
"Yes we still use the computer lab. The children use it mainly to learn how to type and we have teachers come in and teach them how to type and also we use it to play games."
But that's not what these gifts were for and these pricey microwave antennae also weren't made as ornaments of what was or could have been the SWAN project.
Earlier this year 7NEWS reported that in its failed bond offering, government also hoped to retire a money owed to Intelco. for what we can't say, but it has been widely speculated that it may have been those "free" computers.
The SWAN project was administered by the Ministry of Education however that 'SWAN unit' has now been disbanded. Officials from the Ministry of Education will meet with school managers and principals on Thursday about the SWAN project where they are expected to tell them the obvious which is that internet is no longer available because of the failure of Intelco. It is not known if any solution will be offered at the meeting. And our repeated attempts over the past two days to get comment from the Ministry of Education on the future of internet in schools were unsuccessful.
The schools which had free internet but now don't are: St. John's Primary School, Queen Street Baptist School, Ebenezer Methodist School, Wesley Primary School, St. John's Vianney Primary School, St. Joseph's Primary School, St. Martin Deporres Primary School, St. Ignatius Primary School, St. Luke's Methodist School, and Hummingbird Elementary School. The high schools are: Wesley High School, Sadie Vernon High School, Edward P. Yorke High School, Gwen Lizarraga High School, and St. Michael's College. The Leo Bradley National Library and Turton Library Center are also without internet access. We stress this list is not complete and only include the schools we contacted as part of our investigation.