U South Carolina To Blanket Campus with WiFi -- Campus Technology

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U South Carolina To Blanket Campus with WiFi

By Dian Schaffhauser
08/25/09

The University of South Carolina has tapped AT&T to provide WiFi access at its Columbia campus. AT&T and the university will equip 160 buildings and outdoor spaces with high speed wireless broadband to connect 30,000 students, faculty, staff, and guests using a combination of hardware from Cisco Systems and BelAir Networks.

"We have a rich history of providing the best educational tools for our students and support for our faculty and staff, so AT&T was a clear choice for us because of their experience and expertise in offering premium WiFi service," said Harris Pastides, university president.

The deployment will include about 2,400 access points for indoor coverage. The number of access points for outdoor coverage is still being determined. AT&T will provide all consulting for the implementation and also perform network monitoring services once the WiFi system is in place.

Currently, project planning and the site survey are under way. Physical installation will begin in mid-September with completion expected in early 2010.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning. She can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @schaffhauser.