By Isaac Mbuthia, ICT Correspondent

Strathmore University has deployed a wireless network in its Madaraka campus. While the computer labs with nearly 300 desktop machines remain in the wired network, this new initiative targets the growing base of students who would like to access information and learning material from their classrooms, lecture halls, the cafeteria, court yards and the library.

The goal is simply to have the IT resources accessible by authorized users from anywhere in the campus and the response has been overwhelming. The number of students with laptops has increased dramatically over the past 3 months. Staff members from the ICT department say that they have to give instructions on how to connect to the wireless network to at least 4 laptop or PDA users on a daily basis.

What can be accessed?

Most students opted to purchase laptops once they realized they could access the internet from wherever they may be situated in the campus. Nearly all the MBA students carry laptops to their lecture halls and can access any references the teacher provides in the Internet.

One of the main resources for access is the E-learning system where students can view the coursework material that lecturers have posted, submit their finished assignments, update their calendars, interact and chat with fellow students, participate in various fora and communicate with their lecturers.

Other resource material in the local Intranet that students are now able to access from any location in the campus include the Academic Management system's student module, the lecturer's website and the library system among others.

Mobility

"It's no different from working from a computer lab, except that it eliminates the hustle of having to walk to a lab every time you want to go online and do your work," says Josphat Munyu, the ICT infrastructure manager.

"The main challenge for us as a department is network security but we are confident of the measures that we have put in place this far," he continues to add.

Will offer connectivity from home

But if this current initiative sounds good to the students and staff, then what is coming next will be one of the best projects to have been accomplished by the ICT department.

"We are in the process of integrating our Local Area Network with the Kenya Data Networks (KDN)'s network infrastructure," says Mr. Martin Wanjohi, ICT Director, Strathmore University.

"What this means is that our students and staff will be able to access the Internet and our online resources from their homes using our local ICT infrastructure at absolutely no cost for them. Our cost will also remain unchanged since we will only be riding on KDN's public infrastructure to connect to our Internet servers in the campus. We are also in the process of increasing our Internet bandwidth from 4Mbps currently, to nearly double that size."

Kenya Data Networks (KDN), a member of Sameer Group, is a full-service data communications carrier that was licensed by the Communications Commission of Kenya in January 2003 as a public data network operator. KDN is a local company and has a stated policy to use local investors and local expertise to build world-class infrastructure in Kenya. In its recently conducted trials of Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) service, a wireless Internet technology, the firm says that over 22,000 users logged onto the free service in a single weekend.

"It's mostly people at home and individuals who are logging on," says Mr David Owino, general manager of KDN. The research indicates that the service is most popular in the evening between 7pm and 9pm. KDN is rolling out its WIFI network in the Estates and the City Centre of Nairobi.

"In addition to providing our students and staff with Internet connectivity in their homes, we are also going to provide an Internet-based telephony service known as VOIP," says Mr. Martin Wanjohi. "That will be a big benefit for us as an educational institution and more so to our staff members who will be able to make cheap local and international calls."

One of the Wireless signal masts installed by KDN at Strathmore University