The UTD Mercury

The Utley Foundation Board approved funding for a $1.1 million proposal to replace the wireless internet system in Waterview Park (WP) Oct. 23, according to WP manager Jonathan Denton.

The wireless plan would cost WP residents about $15 dollars per month in technology fees, Denton said. The service would not be optional.

If the proposal is implemented, wireless nodes would transmit a high frequency wireless signal that can pass through structural barriers, including the stucco and wire mesh walls of the WP apartments, Denton said. Those structures currently limit wireless access through the system UTD installed 2001-2003. A wireless site survey indicated the signal would reach each apartment.

The plan would also more than double WP's total bandwidth capacity, the amount of data that can be transmitted at one time, to 100 megabytes per second.

Although the Utley Foundation Board approved funding for the proposal, the contract itself has not yet been approved. The next step is for WP management to customize the contract and formalize agreements with Belair, the wireless hardware provider, and AFL Telecommunications, the internet service provider, Denton said. The contract will then go back to the board for approval.

The new wireless network could be installed as early as January, but would be in place before June, Denton said. Students with existing leases would not pay for the service until they signed a new lease and no residents would pay the technology fee until the service started.

University Village (UV) managers addressed the same problem with poor wireless signal quality with a Time Warner cable agreement for wired internet and video services for each resident. Denton said WP has more apartments than UV, so the WP installation costs for a Time Warner cable internet and video package would have been higher, but there are fewer total residents in WP to defray the costs.

An informal survey of students conducted in May by Student Government residential student affairs committee chair Karen Hinkley indicated WP students preferred a wireless internet solution.

"I volunteered to get student input during one of my meetings with Jonathan Denton because he didn't know which solution students wanted," Hinkley said. "I spoke to as many WP residents as I could, and many said they didn't care about cable. Some of them didn't even own a television… They just wanted the wireless to work better."

Denton said nine out of 10 students thought wireless internet was a better deal.

"We also asked them if they'd prefer wireless internet at $15 per month versus $30-$35 per month for an Time Warner Cable internet and video solution. Students said they didn't want to pay more for something they could get for $23 at UV."

Students who need more bandwidth, such as those who work on large media files, currently purchase Internet services from an external provider, Denton said. Those students could choose to pay an additional $10 per month to access 10 megabyte per second download speeds.

The wireless network would be secured against use by non-residents and would give WP staff another way to communicate with students, Denton said. Students will log on to the Internet through a portal website and may have to acknowledge rent due dates or WP's pest control schedule prior to using the service.

"Poor internet performance is the biggest complaint we receive," Denton said. "There's no way we'd bring anything that wasn't head and shoulders above what we have now.

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