Higher education sees bandwidth increase

Universities and colleges across the United States have seen a significant increase in total bandwidth between 2006 and 2007, according to a recent survey.

The study by Speed Matters partner, EDUCAUSE, surveyed 994 colleges and universities.

EDUCAUSE compared doctoral, master's and bachelor's institutions and two-year colleges. Doctoral institutions saw a 60 percent increase in bandwidth

in the year between studies, compared to only a 28 percent increase for two-year colleges.

According to researchers Julia Rudy and Brian Hawkins, doctoral programs have better access to high-speed networks because of "large data sets, visualization and other applications needed by faculty at such institutions for their academic work."

Only six percent of two-year schools and three percent of bachelor's schools have "slow-bandwidth" Internet connections - connections below 4.5 megabits per second.

The median bandwidth for universities that offer master's programs was between 45 and 89 megabits per second. According to Speed Matter's own state-by-state Internet connection speed study, the U.S. average is only 2.3 megabits per second.

Master's universities spent $2.7 million in annual IT funding compared to $1.4 million for bachelor's programs and $1.1 million for two-year colleges.

Study: Bandwidth jumps on college campuses (eSchool News)

EDUCAUSE

State-by-state report shows little improvement in U.S. Internet Speeds (Speed Matters)