When Alcino Donadel does homework in his room at Beaty Towers, he worries about the Wi-Fi connection faltering.
“Unless you’re at a library, you need to have Wi-Fi wherever you are,” the 19-year-old UF business administration freshman said. “And it sucks because sometimes you’ll run into a dead spot in the middle of an assignment.”
But students like Donadel will soon have improved Wi-Fi in the majority of on-campus residence halls by Spring. After receiving student feedback about the hall’s spotty wireless-internet connection, UF Housing and Residence Education plans to strengthen the signal through an initiative called World Class Wi-Fi, wrote Sharon Blansett, the assistant to the associate vice president for Student Affairs, in an email.
The Wi-Fi was installed in six residence halls in July, Blansett said. Installing the system in all residence halls will cost about $1.5 million and will be funded through student rent.
While the Wi-Fi in 10 more halls will be improved in Spring, the dates for expansion to the remaining halls in need of updates has not been determined, she said.
Before the new system, Wi-Fi was strongest in common areas, but now signal will be guaranteed within individual rooms, Blansett said. UF Housing is partnering with Cisco, an internet provider, for the initiative.
“After this upgrade, world-class wireless is guaranteed in the resident rooms,” Blansett said. “Their wireless will be strong, stable, and available when they need it for studies and for leisure.”
The new system has increased support for media and streaming devices like Apple TV and Chromecast, she said.
Buckman, Hume, Thomas, Fletcher, Sledd Hall and Springs Complex already received the strengthened Wi-Fi in July because they had the most need, Blansett said.
The new Wi-Fi will be expanded to 10 residence halls in Spring, she said. Residents in Beaty Towers, Broward, Riker and Yulee, have access to Wi-Fi that isn’t far behind the improved standard, which is why they will be updated last, Blansett said.
Eight halls — Mallory, Jennings, Keys, Lakeside, Infinity, Cypress, University Village South and Corry — are already up-to-date, she said.
Ben Ingham, a UF statistics freshman living in Hume Hall, said he has noticed a difference between the Wi-Fi signal in his room and in other residence halls. When visiting his friend in Rawlings Hall, Ingham can’t connect his phone to the Wi-Fi at all.
He needs a stable Wi-Fi connection for online tests, the 18-year-old said.
“It’s important that I don’t drop Wi-Fi during the middle of an exam, because that would be awful,” he said.
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