University View
It’s almost a ritual — at midnight, minutes before their assignments are due, University View residents make the trek to McKeldin Library to use the Internet.
Though the apartment complex’s website advertises having the “highest speed wi-fi of any student housing building off campus,” residents tell a different story: one of late nights, unbearably frustrating outages and Internet slowdowns that occur almost daily. In recent months, despite management adding new access points and free Ethernet cords for residents, several students said the situation hasn’t improved at all.
“A lot of my assignments are online this semester,” said junior art history and journalism major Joyce Koh. “I’m a student; I obviously do work at night, so I’ll be trying to get on for an econ homework or to research for a paper, and [the Internet] will be completely down, and we’ll be waiting for two hours.”
Beginning at about 4 p.m. and lasting through the evening, Internet access and speed is “abysmal,” said Alex Childs, a junior business and communication major. He said these are the “busy hours,” after students come back from class and begin their evening homework. On April 1, 2 and 3, for instance, the Internet was down for about two hours every day. The most recent outage was the night of April 24, when the Internet was down for more than five hours, Koh said.
The View’s Internet, run through Comcast Telecommunications, can be slower than dial-up speed, according to a screenshot of Speedtest.net results that Harrison Baum, a senior economics major, posted on the University View Facebook page. The screenshot, from 5:46 p.m. on April 10, shows the test gave the View’s Internet a grade of D-minus and reported it was slower than 79 percent of the Internet in the United States.
At about 10 p.m. last night, sophomore journalism major Kate Faiella registered a B-minus test, faster than 62 percent of the U.S.
Though the Internet improved slightly toward the end of the fall semester, it worsened this semester, Koh said. But the issue may be even more longstanding, junior philosophy and psychology major Maren Rey said. A friend of hers has lived in the View for more than two years and constantly complained about the Internet slowdowns, she said.
Because of the issues, students often miss deadlines for online quizzes or assignments or can’t study for tests and do research for papers, residents said. This semester, Koh lost points on two online homework assignments because of Internet problems.
And two weeks ago, Rey was just finishing a take-home final around 1:30 a.m. when her Internet went out. She spent an hour refreshing the page until eventually going up to the fourth floor to try using a public computer.
“There were all these people just walking out, and I was like, ‘Is your Internet down?’” Rey asked. “Everyone’s Internet was down, so they were all — at 1:30, almost 2 in the morning — going to the library because they didn’t have Internet. I was just furious that I would have to get out of bed at 2 and walk over to the library.”
Students aren’t sure why the Internet is so slow, although Rey mentioned she’d heard workers say it might relate to the shape of the View’s building or a lack of bandwidth for the number of residents. View management did not respond to inquiries about the reason for the outages or steps they’re taking to improve the situation, although general manager Sabrina Hunt wrote in an email that customer service is management’s “highest priority.”
On the University View’s Facebook page, management frequently responds to residents’ concerns telling them to call Korcett, Comcast’s subcontractor, to troubleshoot their problems.
But calling the company doesn’t work, several residents said. Rey said Korcett representatives usually tell her to talk to View management, who then tell her to talk to Korcett, leading to a frustrating game of “phone tag.”
“I‘ve called them 20 times; it’s 100 percent unsuccessful,” Koh said.
Following repeated requests for comment, Comcast issued a statement to The Diamondback yesterday.
“Comcast works closely and continuously with our technology partners and property owners to address evolving bandwidth needs at the apartment buildings we serve, particularly as residents increasingly connect to their Internet service wirelessly and with multiple devices,” Alisha Martin, a company spokesperson, wrote in an email.
The problem isn’t that management isn’t taking any action, residents said, it’s that the actions Korcett and the View management are taking are ineffective.
In early December, the University View emailed residents that Korcett representatives would be checking and correcting all wireless access points to address concerns. In March, management wrote that over the past few months, they had installed additional access points. And in April, management wrote on Facebook that Korcett was working on Internet enhancements and a recent outage was due to those enhancements.
This semester, the View also provided residents with Ethernet cords, Rey said, but those — along with the other attempted improvements — don’t make a difference, she added.
“They’re pretty responsive; they have a Facebook page, and they say they’re working on it and testing downloads speed and Internet connectivity,” Childs said. “But we want to see results. It’s one thing for them to respond to the concerns, but is it getting better at the end of the day?”
Several students said the View should spend more money working to fix the Internet for its residents, considering the high prices the students pay to live in the apartment complex.
“We pay so much to live here. I pay over $900 to live in the View,” Koh said. “I think that they talk a big talk, but when it comes to simple things like the Internet, it’s not functional, just completely not functional. They have a lot of [marketing efforts] and even have events that promote living here, but you should really focus on the residents who live here now, not just focus on getting more residents.”
Rey said though she renewed her lease for next year, she debated living somewhere else solely because of the buggy Internet.
“It’s so important,” she said. “You’re offering student living; you should offer Internet responsibly. That’s, like, one of their biggest downfalls.”
