Ninety students have signed up for upgraded Internet service that became available Oct. 27 in Miami University residence halls.
The demand for Internet service in residence halls has gone up 70 percent each year for the past four years, according to senior director of Strategic Communications Cathy McVey.
In order to keep up with the demand, IT services has been adding more bandwidth to the Internet capacity, but it has cost Miami $200,000 over the past two years, McVey said. IT also looks at Internet traffic data anonymously to see what kinds of things students are using the Internet for.
"The amount that is going toward video download like Netflix and YouTube has grown hugely over the past year or so," she said. "If you want to watch in high definition, we don't have enough bandwidth for people to do that."
IT services worked with Housing, Dining, Business and Recreation Services to put together a plan that has a new tier of wireless service called ResNet Turbo; turbo being the extra bandwidth.
"I think it has been very positive," said Larry Fink, assistant vice president of housing and auxillary services. "The numbers seem to indicate that."
The regular Internet has a maximum bandwidth of 1.5 MB/second, according to McVey. The turbo plan offers a minimum of 1.5 MB/second and a maximum of 5-10 MB/second depending on how many people are using the Internet.
First-year Sarah Balech said the Internet in Symmes Hall is slow.
"You can tell at the end of the day it is hard to do your online homework when everyone is on," she said.
Anyone living on campus can purchase ResNet Turbo for $75 per semester. People who purchase it now will be charged $35, McVey said.
Balech said none of her friends have heard of the option yet and she thinks $75 is a lot.
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"But if you need to get all your online homework done, I guess it is reasonable," she said.
The Housing & Meal Plan Office will begin advertising ResNet Turbo though table tents, posters and electronic media. There is also a pop-up that students see when they log into MyCard, according to Fink.
Interested students can sign up for the service on MyCard.
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