At a time of reduced state funding, the University of California, Berkeley, is turning to AT&T to upgrade Wi-Fi across its 178 acre campus. Under the agreement, AT&T will expand and upgrade voice and data coverage in over 80 buildings and place additional Wi-Fi hotspots on campus and in surrounding areas. AT&T will also upgrade its mobile broadband network on campus.
“Improving our wireless network and extending mobile services within our buildings can be challenging initiatives, especially at a time when the campus has fewer resources,” said Michael Mundrane, Deputy Chief Information Officer at UC Berkeley. “This unified effort is an example of what can be accomplished when institutions of higher learning collaborate with companies like AT&T to address students’ needs.”
Currently, UCB has around 1,500 Wi-Fi access points in operation. Under the 5-year deal with AT&T, all equipment and infrastructure that is not directly associated with AT&T’s internal service delivery will be owned by UCB at the end of the contract. http://ist.berkeley.edu/att
