Wiring Lifts UI Speed Limit

University of Idaho math professor Erol Barbut found the Internet on campus less than thrilling.

Slow and unreliable would be a better description. But it recently got a lot faster with the completion of a wiring project.

“I don’t know how I would have survived without it,” he said.

After 15 months of installing more than 19,000 data and telephone connections, the school has a campuswide system linking faculty, staff and students to the Internet.

Barbut sees a lot of potential with the Telecommunications Infrastructure Project. He has already finished writing a cooperative grant for the state’s three universities and saved thousands of dollars in travel and phone expenses.

The $7.5 million project began in July 1995 after a survey revealed 95 percent of the students used the Internet and UI’s network.

As Barbut experienced, access using a modem was slow and restricted to one hour at a time because of the heavy traffic.

Now, every residence hall room, classroom, computer lab and office has the capability of a high-speed connection to the Internet.

There are 75 “wiring closets” across the university. Each closet serves as the nerve center for all computer hookups in the building.

A total of 468 miles of wire lead from the closets to each wall plate. Each of the 6,371 wall plates has three connections, which can accommodate any combination of telephone, computer or fax lines.