Uptown Wireless: a Major Hotspot
by Mark Faulkner
As part of its UC Mobile project, the University of Cincinnati, in partnership with Cincinnati Bell, is creating one of the largest hotspots in Ohio. This will bring public Wi-Fi connectivity to areas in and around UC’s Uptown campus.
Public Wi-Fi service is rapidly becoming an amenity of the Internet age, inviting customers into restaurants, coffee shops, libraries, and other public spaces. Hotspot coverage is typically limited to an individual location.
The UC Mobile Wi-Fi initiative is unique in that the infrastructure going in and around the campus integrates seamlessly with the university’s more than 600 existing wireless access points, making the Uptown campus and its surrounding environment one big hot Zone (UC term, no one else’s), available to any UC student, faculty, or staff network user. Further, UC can offer the ability to connect to the public Wi-Fi to a visiting professor on campus or a guest to the Uptown region.
In a procedure similar to that used in hotspots at Starbucks and McDonald's, a guest can can authenticate into the system using a credit card. Although a credit card is used for authentication, the guest is not charged for the initial three-day connection. From the initial login, he or she receives three free days of service. After that, the cost is $1 per 24 hours of access - well below market compared to other Wi-Fi “pay as you go” services.
It is even easier for a guest with Cincinnati Bell ZoomTown services, who can sign in with the same credentials he or she uses at home.
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