Independant companies will soon provide high-speed Internet to remote students and staff

The UA Internet network may soon be accessible from off-campus computers.

A committee composed of CCIT Networking group members and other UA community members is considering ways to enhance Internet connectivity to the UA on and off campus.

The committee wants to make connectivity for UA students, staff and faculty as unproblematic and inexpensive as possible. This could involve methods of accessing the UA network from off-campus locations.

Internet efficiency is the overall goal of the committee, although specific methods of doing this are still being considered, said Terry Wimmer, Center for Computing and Information Technology network operations manager.

"The hope is that a UA user would be able to select from a variety of access possibilities depending on their needs and location in the Tucson area," Wimmer stated in a newsletter.

The selected vendors would provide direct Internet access to the UA, which could help to eliminate difficulties in connecting to UA from off campus.

"The multiple hops around the country that most Internet services take before coming back through the UA don't allow you all the connecting privileges you have on the UA campus," Wimmer said.

The CCIT committee won't know specifics on the vendors until requests for proposals are awarded. Various ideas on the vendors are being discussed at length. However, Ross hopes to get the projects going soon.

"We want to get everybody the best deal for connecting to campus," said Roger Ross, leader of the CCIT committee. "CCIT doesn't provide service to people in apartments or homes; you get it through whoever you want. But we want to find ways of providing faster service."

The intention is to make constant, high-speed Internet connection possible with two different carriers and to make inexpensive, fast service available for everyone.

"The first (request for proposals) would provide for redundant and dual connecting for commodity Internet for the UA campus," Ross said. "The second would provide for unified prices for students and staff off campus."