You posted about it on Twitter, expressed your frustration on Yik Yak, and told us face-to-face that the Wi-Fi in UTC’s residence halls isn’t as fast or reliable as you need it to be. We heard you – and I have some excellent news to share.
This summer we’ll be upgrading the wireless systems in all of our residence halls. When you return in the fall you’ll notice a huge difference. Instead of having wireless access points in hallways being shared by students living in different units, we will be installing a new state-of-the-art 1 Gb wireless access point in every suite.
The upgrade is the equivalent of turning a 2 lane highway into a 12 lane interstate, now that UTC has partnered with EPB to provide 10 gigabit Internet connectivity throughout the entire campus. UTC is Chattanooga’s first 10 gigabit commercial customer and is one of only a few U.S. universities with this level of ultra-high speed internet service. Soon you’ll be able to take full advantage of it.
The current system is having trouble because it cannot support the huge number of devices trying to connect. In Spring 2011, there were only 4,000 mobile devices on our campus. By Spring 2015, the number of devices had grown to almost 19,000, many of which are streaming large amounts of data like television shows, movies, and video games.
We want you to be able to stream with ease, which is why we are spending more than $1.6M on this project, $975,400 of which is being generously provided by the UC Foundation.
Thank you for your patience.
Sincerely,
Steven Angle
Chancellor