Committed to helping students stay connected even when they are on the go, Valdosta State University now offers open Wi-Fi on all athletic and shuttle buses.

Joe Newton, chief technology officer with VSU’s Division of Information Technology, said that the service was requested by students and funded by student technology fee monies.

“This should alleviate the need for students to use their data plans when riding the buses, as well as allow them to use tablets, laptops, and other Wi-Fi devices while en route,” he explained. “The Division of Information Technology is keen to support students and learning, even when riding the bus, a trend throughout higher education and even K-12 school systems, facilitating efficient and effective use of riding time for learning and related activities, many of which utilize online resources.

“The football team has been accustomed to WiFi on their chartered buses for some time now. The VSU Athletics-owned buses used by the other sports teams were outfitted with Wi-Fi this past December so that those student-athletes could study during long trips throughout the Southeast as well.”

The Division of Information Technology is committed to providing all campus users with a consistently reliable data connection to and from all campus locations, as well as the best services available to enhance the learning experience at Valdosta State.

Making open Wi-Fi available on all athletic and shuttle buses is part of the Division of Information Technology’s ongoing effort to upgrade the existing wireless network system to provide an even faster and more reliable connectivity for the entire VSU campus — nearly 3 million square feet.

The goal is to place approximately 1,600 access points in areas to support high-density usage with coverage including residence student-residents’ rooms, auditoriums, classrooms, dining spaces, the pedestrian mall, and the front lawn midpoint. Advanced caching capabilities will allow local delivery of Internet content in the highest bit-rate available, which means fast updates and high-definition media streaming (i.e., Netflix and YouTube).