NMU Rolls Out New Internet Technology

Northern Michigan University celebrates the 10th anniversary of its campus-wide notebook computer program with a unique announcement.

There’s new technology at hand to make Internet access easier for students all over the area.

And NMU is one of the first schools in the country to have it.

It’s WiMax high-speed Internet service.

WiMax is capable of sending information over broad areas with less interference and more efficient bandwith use than existing Internet methods.

And NMU is one of only a handful of colleges in the country with a WiMax network.

With that, NMU President Dr. Les Wong says students will be able to communicate with their peers and faculty from almost anywhere in the City of Marquette.

He says the existing WiFi hot spots only have about 10% of the city covered, but now they have about 90% covered with WiMax.

The 3,000 Lenovo ThinkPad laptops going to students this fall have built-in WiMax/WiFi cards.

Students using last year’s ThinkPad model will use USB WiMax cards while they’re still within the 2-year notebook rotation cycle.

Then they can get a new one next year if they choose.