Campus Network

At Temple University, almost every classroom, lab, library and dormitory room has a wired Internet connection of at least 100 megabits per second (Mbps)–and has had it for years. Now the 34,000-student university, which has 24,000 students at its main campus in North Philadelphia, is moving toward a parallel capability of near-ubiquitous wireless coverage on campus, while balancing the competing needs of security, ease of access and cost containment.

It's a scene repeated across the country. Colleges and universities, which have been on the forefront of the wired Internet revolution since the mid-1990s, are adding wireless access in common areas where students and faculty congregate, and weighing the costs and benefits of the seamlessly wireless campus versus selective hot spots. Sometimes, rapid adoption of wireless follows. Other times, the ubiquity of wired access means the university moves more deliberately, starting with common areas where there's no wired access.