Wi-Fi at Swinburne

Setting the wi-fi course - smh.com.au

Setting the wi-fi course
By Darryl Nelson
September 16, 2003

"Wireless notebooks are likely to become as ubiquitous as textbooks on Australian campuses over the next few years. With one eye on providing the best possible student experience and the other on potential cost savings in student computer labs, wireless networks are sprouting up all over the university landscape..... Constantine's team compared the library notebooks with lab PCs in terms of space, leasing and insurance costs, network and power provision, maintenance and support, lighting and heating and availability. They discovered a cost per usable hour of just 26 cents for the notebooks, against 60 cents for the lab."

The difference in cost is quite amazing, although if you take out the cost of physical space in Melbourne then that could make a huge difference. Also the availability - if most labs are closed after 5pm then increasing access to 10 or 11pm would increase availability a fair bit.