Despite an original improvement date of mid-October, Ashland University students are still plagued with slow and unreliable Internet speeds; Information Technology hopes to have this issue fixed by the time students return from winter break.

Curtis White, vice president of IT, was commissioned to increase Ashland’s Internet bandwidth for the fall semester of 2010. White looked to Internet provider OneCommunity to increase the bandwidth and Internet speed on campus.

“OneCommunity was the only one who could provide the Internet speeds that we wanted on campus,” White said. “The best part about OneCommunity is that we can increase our bandwidth needs just by calling them up, telling them we want more and sending a check.”

White reported that an increase in bandwidth wouldn’t be delayed if more bandwidth were needed.

“The only problem is finding funds to increase the bandwidth any further,” he said.

Unfortunately, OneCommunity had to lay wires from Akron to Wooster and from Wooster to Ashland. The wires are a fiber optic line that goes both underground and occasionally across telephone poles when running underground is an issue.

“The line from Ashland to Wooster is done,” White said. “We are waiting for the link to be finished from Akron to Wooster. We are being told that [construction] is going well. We’ve been given assurances that construction will be finished by the end of the calendar year.”

However, IT is prepared to deal with the situation if the construction isn’t finished.

“This is plan A, but we are prepared with a plan B,” White said. “We are monitoring both very closely and are prepared to increase the bandwidth in other ways if construction isn’t finished by next semester.”

White reported that Samaritan Hospital would also have their Internet provided by OneCommunity.

White said that the wired Internet speed would vastly improve once construction is finished, but the wireless would remain unchanged.

“We know it’s a problem and must be improved,” White said, “If we get additional funds, we may be able to improve the wireless.”

He said there are plans to improve the wireless this summer and expects the wireless to be updated when students return next fall.

White believes that the assurance from OneCommunity is a solid assurance and students should enjoy increased bandwidth when they return from winter break.