Volume 124 Issue 97
kansan.com
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
CAMPUS LIVING
INTERNET WOES?
Apogee increased bandwidth last semester, but some say it wasn't enough
LUKE RANKER
Iranker@kansan.com
Stephanie Crandon's Internet connection in her scholarship hall was so slow she decided to pay for her own Internet provider.
Crandon, a sophomore from Lawrence, said she originally contracted with Apogee to provide Internet services for her room in Dennis E. Rieger Hall last semester, but by October she was disappointed in Apogee's speed.
"It was so slow it would just time out sometimes," Crandon said.
of KU IT, Department of Student Housing and student leaders from residence halls.
Crandon said she decided to pay for a second Internet provider, Lawrence Freenet, about four months ago and has been paying for both services since.
Crandon said slow Internet is common in her hall.
"Not a week goes by you don't hear about it," she said.
Fall 2012/Spring 2012 Proposed Packages:
Crandon said that while she thinks she's the only one paying for a second service provider, she has heard of residents using cell phones as wireless hotspots.
Basic - 1Mbps $98
Choice - 10 Mbps $138
Choice Plus - 15 Mbps $158
Support line - 1-855-643-2149
Email - support@myresnet.com
Schedule a call by texting "ResNet"
to 84700
Apogee 24/7/365 Tech Support Info:
Sememster upgrade and no additional charge:
"Under this proposal, the cost for that speed is actually going down," he said.
Next year, the proposed price and speed for the Semester Basic Package will increase from 1 Mbps for $98 to 10 Mbps for $128. Nat Nealeigh, director of marketing and communications for Apogee, said Apogee's voluntary increase in speeds to 8 Mbps at no additional charge aren't relevant in determining next year's proposed rates and speeds. Nealeigh said that last semester, more than 60 percent of Apogee's campus customers upgraded to 10 Mbps or higher.
Basic 10 Mbps $128
Choice 20 Mbps $148
Choice Plus 30 Mbps $168
Slow Internet connections plagued residence halls after the University switched from in-house KU IT ResNet to Apogee, an Austin, Texas, based firm. The company increased bandwidth last semester after receiving a large number of complaints about slow connections. On Feb. 2, Apogee CEO Charles Brady met with members
Despite Crandon's experience, Director of Student Housing, Diana Robertson said that after speeds were increased last semester, the department has received good feedback from students. She said she didn't blame Apogee for the slow connections because the University set the speeds.
Fall 2011 contracted:
Basic - 8 Mbps
Choice - 15 Mbps
Choice Plus - 20 Mbps
APOGEE RATES/SPEED INCREASES PER SEMESTER
Source: Apogee
"We didn't know what that speed needed to be set at," Robertson said.
Robert Fitzpatrick, a junior from Overland Park, attended the Apogee meeting as a representative of McCollum Hall and said the CEO's presentation asked a lot of questions. He said that while there were issues last semester, connections have improved.
"This semester has been really good," Fitzpatrick said.
Robertson said part of the reason scholarship halls might experience areas with slower connections is because Apogeo has not yet done a "dense deploy" of wireless access points in the scholarship halls yet.
Crandon said she was not really
Though attempts to obtain an exact figure were unsuccessful, Nealeigh said Apogee has invested "millions of dollars in infrastructure improvements" and will continue to invest in the infrastructure project.
satisfied with Apogee support. She said she had sent several emails over the course of the semester expressing her concern over her slow connection but received few improvements. Crandon said she called the service line twice and was told to plug into hardline connection.
"That's inconvenient for my roommate because the jack is located next to her bed," she said.
During one call, Apogee support had Crandon test her connection at least eight times. She said her connection tested significantly slower than it should have been.
"They said it was probably my computer running spyware," Crandon said.
She said that didn't make sense because her computer runs fine on the Freenet connection.
Crandon said that about a week ago, an Apogee agent came to her hall to fix her connection and the connection of another resident. She said when he left, he dropped off a bag of Ethernet cables for residents
to use when their wireless is too slow.
"I would rather have a refund from Apogee and continue the other service," she said.
Ann Ermey, program director of Service Management and Delivery at KU IT, said that students should try a wired connection first, but if students experience extremely slow speeds, they should contact Apogee support on their 24-hour hotline, via email or by text message.
"With the recent upgrades to the Apogee Network, as well as the expanded wireless service, speeds should be acceptable," E#mey wrote in an email.
Speeds commonly drop when users attempt to stream videos off the Internet. Crandon said a lot of the connection issues in her hall happen when students try to stream Netflix or Hulu videos.
"It's frustrating not to be able to use the services you pay for," she said.
Edited by Caroline Kraft
A (HERSHEY'S) KISS FROM A ROSE
Lindsey Eck, a freshman from Wichita, makes a Hershey Kiss heart at the Valentine's Day Open House Tuesday afternoon in the lobby of the Kansas Union. The Student Union Activities-sponsored event lasted from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
ASHLEIGH LEE/KANSAN
GLAIRF HOWARD/KANSAN
A stoplight sporting brand-new LED bulbs directs downtown Lawrence traffic on Massachusetts Street Monday night. In an effort to be more environmentally friendly and energy-efficient, Lawrence officials swapped out more than 3,000 traditional incandescent bulbs with the more efficient LEDs, saving the city an estimated $100,000 or more in electricity costs.
LED traffic lights now fully installed
TRAFFIC SAFETY
The universities of Baylor, Iowa State, Oklahoma State and Missouri have more in common than being in the Big 12 and losing basketball games in Allen Fieldhouse. Their towns gained the lead on Lawrence in switching over to LED traffic lights.
rschlichting@kansan.com
Lawrence completed the transition to LED lights on Feb. 9.
Waco, Texas, home of Baylor, has been using LED traffic lights for almost a decade. Stillwater, Okla., home of Oklahoma State, has had them for almost as long as Waco. In the past three years, Columbia, Mo., and Ames, Iowa, completed the switch.
"We took an incremental approach," Uddin said. "We didn't hire a contractor. We did that with our in-house staff and as time allowed or as our funds were available."
But Lawrence did lead the state in changing to more efficient lights. Lawrence was the first city in Kansas to start replacing its incandescent traffic lights with LED bulbs, but it took a more gradual approach than some other towns. The city started the project in the mid-1990s and finished second to Olathe, according to Shoeb Uddin, city engineer.
Each regular light costs about $150, and arrow lights cost about $250, according to Lawrence traffic supervisor James Risner.
"We have an average of 86 intersections, and it averages about 40 to 50 LEDs that have to be replaced per intersection. So it gets to be quite expensive," Risner said. "That's why we've scattered it out over the years."
CRYPTOQUIPS 4
GPINION 5
Index
The dodgeball tournament is at the Ambler Student Recreation Center at 7 p.m. Sign up, or just go watch people get smacked in the head.
Don't forget
Waco's traffic lights have been LEDs for eight years, according to Norman Hogue, Waco's program administrator of traffic services. The 194 LED lights use less energy, running on 2 to 7 watts as opposed to the old 125-watt lights.
CLASSIFIEDS 9
CROSSWORD 4
SPORTS 10
SUDOKU 4
LIGHTING QUICK FACTS
Traditional incandescent traffic lights cost approximately $1,821.19 per year to operate
Each LED saves approximately 120 watts of electricity per hour
LED traffic signals cost $202.37 per year to operate
Columbia replaced its incandescent bulbs with LED lights between 2006 and 2008. The city has saved 80 percent in electricity bills from the change, according to Chris Valleroy, a city engineering aide.
Ames started its replacement project in 2005 and finished in 2011. The city still has one major intersection that is not LED-lit, but Damion Pregitzer, traffic engineer for Ames, said the city will change those lights, too.
According to the Columbia Daily Tribune, the transition began after a fatal car accident at an intersection. The Columbia police reported that the traffic light may have burned out.
The annual estimated cost savings for the LED signals is $137,599.70
Source: City of Lawrence
["The LEDs] are more reliable," said Chris Vallierer, a city of Columbia engineering aide. "We've had less problems with the lights going out, which is obviously a safety benefit. Plus it's saving money."
Stillwater has used LEDs for at least the past five years, according to James Driskel, the city's traffic control supervisor. That includes all of its traffic lights, but not the pedestrian signals, Driskel said.
All contents, unless stated otherwise. © 2012 The University Daily Kansan
Edited by Ian Cummings
Today's Weather
Chance of thunderstorms as the sun helps warm the air, strengthening the precipitation.