Multimedia Reporting (Kuhr-Musser)

The University of Kansas, is considering charging residence hall students that download too much onto their computers. The new system was purposed after students complained about slow internet connections on surveys that the Networking and Telecommunication Service had administered three years ago. A final decision should be made by summer according to John Louis, Director of Networking and Telecommunication Services at KU.

Currently the university charges $19 a month for internet access a flat fee where everyone shares the bandwidth, the connection through which computer data travels. As a short-term solution, ResNet, a division of NTS, limits the available bandwidth, the room that is available through which video and audio travel, during the peak hours of 7am to 2am daily. Considering that the university spends over a million dollars a year to connect to the Internet it can be a very expensive venture according to Louis. Because of the high price tag, John Louis, Director of NTS, wants to find a solution that will be a more fair method for the students and a way to weed out some of the bandwidth abusers.

“There has been strong support from the students in the residence halls that we do something like this,” said John Louis, Director of NTS. “I think the students are asking about this because some students feel they are being mistreated.”

Allison Lopez, Public Relations Manager for Information Systems, feels that there seems to be a phenomenon as opposed to a problem with bandwidth overage.

“Twenty percent of the population is using 80 percent of the bandwidth,” said Allison Lopez, PR Manager for Information Systems.

Ken Stoner, Director of Student Housing agreed that the topic is worth discussion, no matter the outcome. He said whatever is decided the students will accept.

Another solution besides paying for excess Internet use that NTS is looking into involves a quota system, according to John Louis, Director of NTS. With this process the user would be allowed so many bits of bandwidth per day or week and if you go over your amount you will be shut out from Internet access on your computer. This solution would cost less money to implement at the university and it could possibly be combined with a charging system as an additional option for additional bandwidth, according to Louis.

One university that currently uses an overage-based charging system for bandwidth is Cornell University. The university allocates a certain amount of bandwidth, much like KU, to each computer and if the user goes over that amount they will be charged more much like a cell phone plan that costs extra for every minute users exceed their limit. The university that is getting the most attention from KU is North Dakota State, which currently uses a quota system according to John Louis, Director of NTS.

Matt Greeno, Hoyt, Kan. Freshman, disagreed with the idea that there is a problem with Internet in the dorms.

“The Internet is often a bit slow, but it has never prevented me from getting my homework done,” said Greeno. “On the whole, I am pretty satisfied with the way the Internet is now.”

According to John Louis, Director of NTS, you will see less universities charging students for excess Internet use, but he agrees that way is more like realistic than the quota system.

“It (usage-based charging) does not sound like fun to me, but that is how they do it in the real world,” said John Louis, Director of NTS. “They bill you for your minutes used.”