Following a well-received run at Krzyzewskiville, the wireless technology that allowed students to access the Internet from their tents is headed to the Bryan Center.
Students chosen to receive the innovative equipment can now check e-mail while sipping a latte at the cafe or browse the World Wide Web from one of its study rooms.
The service has been made possible by a shoebox-sized transmitter that was installed March 4 in a cafe cabinet. Students connect with the transmitter through ethernet-card-like accessories that plug into the back of their laptops.
Tenters who used the technology in K-ville responded enthusiastically.
Trinity sophomore Marcos Garcia said the connection was as simple and fast to use as the traditional wire connection. The connection rate for the new technology is roughly 100 times faster than a modem.
"The speed was great and the hookup was fine," Garcia said, although he noted that bad weather prevented him from using it very often while in K-ville.
Trinity freshman Brian Bunnell, who has used the technology "pretty much every time I had tent duty" and has also used it without difficulty in the Bryan Center, said he thought the program was worth expanding. Bunnell added that he was looking forward to the possibility of having the technology expanded to other sites-particularly East Campus.
Bob Currier, director of data communications at the Office of Information Technology, said the technology will be limited to the Bryan Center until OIT gets more feedback from student users.
Of the four transmitters the University possesses, only one is currently in use. One is being kept by OIT as a backup unit, and officials are considering alternate locations for the remaining two units. Feasible locations, Currier said, include Perkins library and the Fuqua School of Business.
Currier said plans to continue with the pilot program arose following the overall success of the K-ville trial. The sole glitch in the system occurred when the transmitter, which was set up just inside Brownstone Dormitory, was damaged by moisture from a nearby window and had to be replaced two weeks after being installed.
After receiving positive feedback from students who used the technology in K-ville, Akom-the Connecticut-based company that produces the technology-decided to expand the pilot program and give the University two additional transmitters and 25 more cards. The new cards will be distributed tomorrow to previously selected students.
In the future, Currier said, Akom hopes to produce an outdoor transmitter unit to enable places such as the West Campus residential quadrangles or the Sarah P. Duke Gardens to be Internet-accessible. "I think the gardens would be a particularly cool spot," he said.
Officials at Akom, which will sell the product for about $300, could not be reached for comment about the trial with the University.
If the technology becomes a permanent fixture at the University, wide-scale implementation would require formal approval and funding. OIT would buy and install the transmitters, and the cards would be made available for general purchase by the computer store.
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