'A Computer for Every Child'

Called 'A Computer for Every Child', the programme required cabling school buildings to handle the latest digital communications. Nexans and regional partner KABTEL Ltd. successfully won the coveted cabling contract based on a LANmark-5 cabling system.

PROGRESSIVE POLICY

The Republic of Macedonia's Ministry of Information (MOI) Society proactively promotes information technology to enrich the country culturally as well as to develop a knowledge-based economy. In late 2006, it embarked on a policy called 'Computer for Every Child', part of a national initiative to enrich and enlighten students. The platform to achieve this goal involved low-cost personal computers that, with special 'thin client' technology, allow up to seven students to access a single server simultaneously from the security and safety of classrooms. Students who rotate computer time throughout the school day share each thin client unit.

Nearly 18,000 client servers, 99,000 flat panel monitors and keyboards, and approximately 81,000 thin client units were acquired and dispersed amongst all primary and secondary schools. The nation's Minister of Information, His Excellency Ivo Ivanovski, explains how the program improves teaching. "It first facilitates one-on-one computer instruction, thereby raising the number of students actively participating in the educational process," he says. "As a result, there will be equal opportunities for all students regardless of the school's location, and equal treatment of every student, regardless of where they sit in the classroom."

The challenge was to wire school buildings nationwide to accommodate the classroom-based computers, as well as link them in local and wide-area networks and tie each to a high-speed Internet connection. "New cabling was needed inside 105 secondary school buildings with more than 2,000 classrooms in a mix of old and new construction," says Goran Mitreski, General Manager, KABTEL Ltd., a valued Nexans regional distributor headquartered in Skopje. KABTEL was amongst four firms responding to a tender from government-owned Macedonian Telecom assigned to oversee the first phase.

HIGHLY COORDINATED EFFORT

KABTEL won the contract because of its strong regional presence and experience through-out the Balkans, its Nexans Training Centre in Skopje, and some beneficial attributes of the cable it recommended for the project: LANmark-5 shielded twisted pair. The highly resilient yet flexible cable became the primary network foundation because its narrow diameter allowed multiple cables to be easily pulled in PVC ducts shared with electric power lines. Its shielded construction reduces electromagnetic interference (EMI).

"The other proposals recommended separate PVC ducts for telecom and power at considerable cost. However, thanks to the excellent shielding of the LANmark-5 cable, we were able to place multiple communications and power cables together in a single duct without concern for EMI or crosstalk," says Goran Mitreski. More than 261 kilometres of LANmark-5 cable were used throughout the total installation requiring 15,724 links.

GOALS ACHIEVED

Work on phase one was successfully completed in 2008. Since then, KABTEL won a second contract to cable 400 primary schools nationwide involving about 5,000 classrooms. "We've been very satisfied with the cabling network's performance to date," says Minister Ivanovski. Goran Mitreski adds: "Our firm has demonstrated its installation capabilities supported by the high-quality LANmark product and Nexans technical support. We know what we're talking about, and it shows."

BENEFITS FROM CABLING ALL MACEDONIAN SCHOOLS

  • Foundation for building a national educational management and information system
  • Shared experience and lesson planning amongst teachers nationwide
  • Synchronised nationwide student testing and evaluation