Shentel, the current internet provider at Longwood, is reassessing connections and access points in residence halls and managed apartments due to connectivity issues. Shentel has been around since 1902 offering broadband internet, digital TV, high-speed internet, and phone services to its consumers. They have extended these services to Longwood residence halls as well as other companies in the mid-Atlantic area.
Students buying their own routers in order to strengthen their internet connection are impacting other students' Wi-Fi connections. Mark Kendrick, the Associate Vice President of Information at Longwood University, spoke about how students purchasing routers can affect the service; “People go to Walmart and buy their own access points thinking that it’ll help. They’re unmanaged, and the power unleveled strength they give off pushes back on the wireless coverage we’re trying to create.” Issues with signal strength were made apparent at Lancer Park. Mark Kendrick said that signal strength testing began as outages and weak signal strength were shown in the managed apartments and residence halls.
Shentel is trying to combat this issue with a process called heat mapping in order to find the routers that currently push back on Shentel’s Wi-Fi access points. Kendrick explains the process of heat mapping, “So they walk through the resident halls to check signals and make sure they’re clear, they also remotely monitor the devices such as access points.” The process to test signal strength involved multiple parties.
It starts with Shentel Wi-Fi notifying Longwood of the signal issues then the information technology services notifies Resident and Commuter Life (RCL). Jean Wilwohl, the Senior Director of RCL, explained how they notify students of signal strength testing, “They will communicate that with us, and we will send an email out to students in those communities that we will be doing that testing, so that students will be aware that it will be taking place.” With this information, Shentel and Longwood can assess where signal strength can be improved. Kendrick explained what else this data is used for, “With the current testing we are doing right now, the goal is to look at the potential to increase bandwidth and the services throughout the residence halls and managed apartments.”
According to Longwood’s website, they currently receive bandwidth, cable, and telephone services from Shentel. If Longwood chooses to expand broadband services more people could transfer data and information on the Shentel network. Longwood’s current goal is to increase the current bandwidth since, according to Kendrick, Longwood has been outsourcing residence hall internet services to Shentel for at least ten years.
Once the contract expires in December 2023, Shentel and Longwood will reevaluate their relationship and contract. Options could include changing service providers or considering expansion of broadband services. There are other options in the Farmville area that Longwood could consider once their current contract with Shentel has expired. This includes Kinex Telecom, Va.Internet Services, and CenturyLink.
Craig Venable, Vice President of Commercial Sales at Shentel, commented on Shentel and Longwood’s relationship and future endeavors, “We’ve been working with Longwood for almost ten years now; it's been a great partnership.” Venable added, “A lot of our technicians are literally friends with folks at Longwood now because we work so closely with you all, so it’s been a really wonderful partnership and I do look forward to continuing that.”
