Cafenet News

Massey opens WiFi cupboard

26 April 2004

The 5500 students enrolled at Massey University in Wellington are getting wireless broadband access to the internet on campus, following a deal between the university and Wellington telco CityLink.

CityLink has installed two 802.11g WiFi access points at the university's campus in Wellington and another three access points will be operational in about a week.

They are being used let students access CityLink's commercial CafeNet service, which provides wireless access to the net at a cost of 20 cents per megabyte.

Massey University computer and electronics lecturer Stan Swan says CityLink has paid for the infrastructure and will get all the revenues.

The 802.11g access points each provide 54 megabits per second of bandwidth and may be accessible to both students and other CafeNet customers outside the campus, in nearby student flats for example, though Massey has yet to determine where the outer limit for access will be.

"Line of sight is usually the norm with WiFi, but we've found with 'g' we can get coverage through many walls, and even through concrete."

The advantage for Massey is that the CityLink arrangement lets students access the Net using wireless devices such as notebooks and handhelds without the university having to manage the service or take on responsibility for ensuring it is secure, says Mr Swan.

"It is a win for everyone. From Wellington's point of view we've got a wireless infrastructure that is now spreading out from the CBD to support the 'Te Aro silicon valley' much better.

Massey gets to receive WiFi coverage without the overhead of managing security and passwords, as all that is handled by the existing CafeNet system."

Mr Swan estimates more than half of Massey's students in Wellington have notebook computers or PDAs.

While many don't have WiFi cards fitted, he reckons about 1000 students will probably have the hardware needed to use the service by the end of the year, given that WiFi cards are now retailing for about $60.

It will be particularly useful for students to access the net from the library and from cafes on campus, he says.

Massey already has a link to CityLink's fibre optic network to connect the WiFi access points upstream to the net.

"The existing CityLink wiring comes into the computer centre here and has just been sitting there for some years. Almost none of the new staff knew about it. There was a cabinet on the wall, but not many people knew what it was."

Fortunately one staffer still had a key and was able to open the cabinet to confirm it was a connection to CityLink's fibre optic network.

CafeNet now operates more than 100 WiFi access points across the city, all of which have already, or soon will be upgraded to the 802.11g standard.

It is backwardly compatible with the 802.11b standard, which supports 11 megabits of data per second per access point.

CityLink sales executive Karen Lindsay-Kerr says it is a strategic move for the telco to have "a large campus like Massey on CafeNet".