A company that tests internet speed found that of the 16 universities left in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, UF has the second-slowest internet speed.
But the UF information technology department disputes the company’s claim.
Speedtest by Ookla, a global internet speed test company based out of Seattle, found UF to have an average download speed of 83.61 megabits per second and an upload speed of 88.29 Mbps, said Adriane Holter, a spokesperson for the company.
This puts UF second to last, third to last including Xavier University, which had no data.
Holter said the company conducted the test by analyzing data from people who used Speedtest, a website that tests someone’s internet speed, in the area near the university campuses.
“It kind of sheds a spotlight on that performance, and it can incentivize investment in infra- structure,” Holter said.
Tracy Gale, the communications manager for UFIT, wrote in an email that the director of network services found results 10 times faster than Speedtest by Ookla. UFIT found an 891.32 Mbps download speed and an 880.97 Mbps upload speed over a Wi-Fi connection.
“Ookla is a vendor and may have a vested interest in these rankings, in terms of who their
university clients are,” Gale said.
Michelle Suarez, a UF political science freshman, said she uses UF’s Wi-Fi daily from her room in Beaty Towers.
“It’s not the best, but it gets the job done,” said the 18-year-old.
Contact Romy Ellenbogen at rellenbogen@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter at @romyellenbogen
