From: technews <technews@ou.edu>
To: "'it-fyi@listserv.ou.edu'" <it-fyi@lists.ou.edu>
Subject: it-fyi: Successful Wireless Internet Connectivity Trial (NYSERNet
Date: Tue, 9 Nov 1999 13:21:19 -0600
ROCHESTER STUDENTS PARTICIPATE IN SUCCESSFUL WIRELESS INTERNET CONNECTIVITY
TRIAL
A new tool for curriculum enrichment
Syracuse, NY-November 8, 1999. NYSERNet, the next-generation Internet
service provider for the educational and research community in New York
State, just completed a significant trial of the delivery of the Internet
with MMDS wireless transmission technology (multichannel multipoint
distribution service). NYSERNet, with the support of funding from the
National Science Foundation, designed the trial to examine the feasibility
and economy of supplying high-speed wireless local loops for Internet
services to K-12 and other community-based organizations for which a regular
high-speed telephone line would be too costly. Ten organizations in the
Rochester, NY area participated with NYSERNet in the trial. CAI Wireless
Systems, Inc. collaborated in the design and implementation of the trial.
Participants were Rochester School For the Deaf, Norman Howard School,
Industry School, Lyons Elementary School, four Rochester City School
District schools (Charlotte Middle School, Nathaniel Rochester Community
School, Helen Barrett Montgomery School #50, Roberto Clemente School #8),
the Rochester Boys & Girls Club, and Charles Settlement House.
For many of the students and faculty, this trial was their first experience
with the Internet as an educational tool. Their wireless connections gave
them high-speed access (10 megabits/second, over 175 times faster than
today's telephone modems) to the vast store of information on the Internet.
NYSERNet proposed the trial to the National Science Foundation, said Tim
Lance, NYSERNet's president, "to bring the benefits of the Internet to under
served portions of the education community by taking advantage of wireless
transmission capabilities." At the time of the 1997 proposal, wireless
access to the Internet was an emerging technology. However,
industry-watchers have seen this technology grow significantly during the
course of the project.
According to Jim Minton at the Industry School, "Student eyes were opened
wide to all the possibilities the Internet offers." Joan Matzner at
Rochester's Helen Barrett Montgomery School #50 said, "Teachers had a new
medium for researching information on curriculum topics.... Students had a
method of obtaining information that was current and interactive."
The Project's final report is available at
http://nysernet.org/wireless.html.
___________________________________
NYSERNet, a not-for-profit corporation with locations in Syracuse and
Albany, provides leading-edge network services to enable the goals of New
York's research and education institutions.
For additional information contact: Jim Brennan (jbrennan@nysernet.org)
Phone 518-283-3584 x25