Network Services is implementing a new wireless technology that will standardize the university's wireless infrastructure and provide more reliable quality of service.

There have been multiple efforts by the IT department at Georgia Southern University to manipulate the speed and access to WiFi in certain buildings.

“Our main focus is to improve the degradation in performance that is common during the afternoon and evening, which is the most common complaint we receive,” Resnet employee, Lakisha Hill, said.

Around 90% of college students say Wifi access is as essential to education as classrooms and computers and nearly three in five say they wouldn’t go to a college that does not have WiFi, according to a survey by the Wifi Alliance and Wakefield Research.

Assignments on websites, such as Mastering Chemistry, Mastering Biology, Mymathlab, and Georgia View require the long-term use of Internet at GSU.

Students are advised to take online quizzes or tests with wired Internet connection. Wireless connection tends to fluctuate more in general. Multiple efforts are being made to improve the speed and condition of campus WiFi by Resnet, Sam Wainford, information technology professor said.

Such dilemmas may affect when a student is able to do assigned work, Jibrell Leitzsey, freshman electrical engineering major, said.

“You have to plan when to do your homework according to when the connection will be fast or slow,” Leitzsey said.

Students have had bad experiences with residence halls’ WiFi speeds and connections.

The Internet connection in University Villas does not always work and the building’s computer lab is of no help when all four computers are occupied, Bre Coleman, senior chemistry major, said.

“I had more problems with it freshman year when I lived in Centennial… since I have been at Georgia Southern, they’ve really expanded it [WiFi connection],” Christina Belge, junior public relations major said.

Individual allocation per student is currently 6 MB for students in the residence halls, which is impressive. For example, a home Internet provider service typically provides 3 MB, and it would cost more to increase this amount, Wainford said.

However, some students think that the price is still too high for the services offered.

The price students are paying in fees for the connection does not equal the quality of the connection, Brandon Pennamon, junior mass communications major said.

“It is not as good as it should be for what you’re paying. Where it is needed most is where it is not applicable,” Pennamon, said.

With talk of the plan for WiFi to be expanded to new locations, some students question how this will negatively impact the already trying connection in places where access is currently available.

“As of right now, what they have works, but their system will just crash and not work very well in the future from expanded locations,” sophomore information’s syatems major, Carlyle Hall, said.

Wireless Internet connection is currently available in all campus residence halls, except Kennedy, as well as the majority of academic buildings.