Extension Of Coverage: The UOM and UTM Wi-Fi Zones

The official launch will be made tomorrow by ministers Tassarajen Pillay Chedumbrum and Rajesh Jeetah.Once limited to laboratories, the Wi-Fi coverage was extended on the campus of the two universities to provide broadband Internet access to all students, academics, non-academic staff at universities, researchers and the public in general.

This initiative of the Ministry of Information Technology and Communication (ICT) is to ensure that students are able to fully exploit the true potential and benefits of the Internet and to help improve the quality education at all levels. People will be able to access an internet coverage wherever they find it.

This measure, hope the ministry will bridge the digital divide within the academic community, thus contributing to the goal of the government to a knowledge economy.With the deployment of Wi-Fi networks in these two universities is Phase 2 of the "Wi-Fi Mauritius" that happen. The first phase involved ten Wi-Fi hotspots in 10 local authorities: the five councils, four district councils and Rodrigues.A steering committee - which includes the Ministry of Higher Education - under the chairmanship of the Ministry of ICT, has been put in place to ensure the successful implementation of the Wi-Fi project in these tertiary institutions.

The project cost is Rs 5 million and includes investment, internet connectivity and recurrent costs for the next three years. The Department justifies this cost "high" because of the extent of the perimeter of the campus of the University and access to higher speed internet. The installation cost was funded by the Ministry of ICT while the Higher Education will be responsible for running costs.The tender exercise for the supply, installation and commissioning of the Wi-Fi coverage in the UoM and UTM was launched on 12 October 2012. Successful bidders are Emtel Ltd for the University of Mauritius, Enterprise Data Services Ltd (EDS) for the UTM and still the same company for the establishment of an internet kiosk in the two universities.

The "Wi-Fi Mauritius" project, to reiterate, was approved by the Cabinet in June 2011. The goal is to benefit all Mauritians free internet access through a wireless high-speed, via computer or mobile device, such as a PDA or smartphone, in urban and rural areas very popular such as local authorities. Phase 1 of the project is funded through the Universal Service Fund (USF) in which are paid compulsory contributions from telecom operators. Following a call for tender exercise carried out by the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (ICTA) in October 2011, the contract to deploy Wi-Fi networks was allocated to Data Communications Ltd. (DCL).