AUC Working Toward Internet Connectivity Solutions
By: Maya Abouelnasr
@EmEn1125
AUC is continuing to seek connectivity solutions in response to ongoing complaints by AUC students, staff and faculty, said the Vice President for Digital Transformation and Chair of the Digital Optimization committee.
Speaking to The Caravan, Ayman Abdellatif explained his team’s current priorities regarding the support offered to students both on campus and online.
“We continue to work along the five pillars of accessibility, support, security, software/tools, and infrastructure and storage. We [also] continue to invest in moving solutions to the cloud and ensure resilience of our solutions and universal access to them,” Abdellatif said.
He added that his team is continuing to work with students to ensure that they have access to adequate connectivity by determining which mobile operator provides the most reliable coverage.
In addition to the university’s efforts to provide better internet quality, numerous efforts have been made on a national level as well.
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology launched an initiative that increased bandwidths by 20 percent to lessen the burden of global internet stress, as well as encourage people to stay home and help curb the spread of COVID-19.
The bandwidth of Egypt’s local networks was also increased 600 percent last year in an EGP 30 billion nationwide project.
According to the 2017 Global Index Report published by Speedtest, an internet access performance metrics service based in Seattle, Egypt ranked 146 out of 150 in fixed broadband download speeds between July and December 2016. As of August 2020, Egypt ranks 91st out of 174 countries in fixed broadband download speeds, which reflects the quality improvement.
Despite the improvement in quality, complaints related to unstable internet connections persist.
“I sometimes miss half the lecture because of my extremely poor internet and I’ve told my ISP [Internet Service Provider] several times to increase the speed, but it still doesn’t help because sometimes we are three people at home using Zoom at the same time,” graduating Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) senior Yasmeen Abdelkader told The Caravan.
She added that when she complains to her ISP, the only response she receives is that they are looking into the issue and will resolve it within the next 48 hours, which seldom is the case.
There are, however, tips that everyone can try to follow to strengthen their own existing connections and work around internet stress before referring to outside help.
According to Sherif Aly, professor and chair of the Computer Science and Engineering department, investing in a powerful access point with a wide range is a good first step.
An access point is a device that generates a wireless local area network (WLAN). This is done through a connection to a router or another device using an Ethernet cable, which then projects the signal to a particular desired space or area.
Aly offered other tips on how one can strengthen their internet connection.
“[This includes] WiFi repeaters or a very cheap solution is basically creating a little directional antenna, using a piece of aluminum foil that allows you to reflect the signal in a given direction at your home by placing it [the aluminum foil] behind the antenna and moving it around,” Aly told The Caravan.
He added that having back-up connections at home would also be useful in the case of simultaneous internet usage by multiple people using up large amounts of bandwidth.
Aly also suggested changing the download settings on some applications, such as WhatsApp, wherein photos and videos automatically download and save to users’ phones. He proposed changing the settings so that downloads are manual to decrease the constant bandwidth consumption from applications running in the background.
