Maine Perspective Front Page
UMaine Remote Access Fees Go Into Effect Jan. 1
Beginning Jan. 1, a new remote access billing system begins for members of the University of Maine community who are off-campus when connecting to the Internet via the campus-based modem pool.
Remote access users with UNET logons will have 50 hours of free Internet usage each month and will be charged half a penny ($.005) per minute thereafter, according to a joint announcement Nov. 24 by UMaine Information Technologies (IT) and University of Maine System University Network for Education and Technology Services (UNET).
For instance, for remote access users spending 100 hours a month dialing into modems at UMaine to reach the Internet next semester, the cost will be $15 every 30 days.
Remote access user fees, to be paid for via users' MaineCards, will support UNET's maintenance of the modem pool and help pay for telephone line charges incurred by UMaine. Members of the University community also can be pre-authorized to have fees paid by their departments. The Academic Computing and Advisory Committee (ACAC) has established a small fund to support hardship cases. More details are available at: www.ume.maine.edu/~itadmin/ra/
"We are not doing this to make money off students. The purpose is to ensure responsible use of the modem pool," says Jim Patton, who was interim IT director and who helped draw up the new modem pool policy. "Previously, when there was no charge, remote access had no perceived value. People gave their passwords to family and friends. Why not? It was free, after all. We had instances of people using the same logon simultaneously from more than one campus. The point is not to gouge people but to promote responsible use of the modem pool. With a charge plan, people will modify their behavior, including not being as eager to divulge their passwords."
UMaine is the last campus in the University of Maine System to fall under the new modem management policy. A remote access user fee program was piloted at USM for more than a year. In October, USM was followed by System campuses in Augusta, Presque Isle, Fort Kent and Lewiston. University of Maine at Machias started remote access billing in November and University of Maine at Farmington Dec. 1.
On each campus, UNET offered 30 free hours of Internet access each month per user; as of Dec. 1, all other System campuses went to 50 free hours a month. Under the 30-hour plan, a 100-hour remote access user paid $42 a month; now under the 50-hour plan, the same user pays $15 a month.
"At USM, the parameter was 30 hours a month of free usage and it worked well for them," says John Grover, UNET Operations Manager. "But USM does not have the same situation as UMaine. The biggest difference is UMaine's wider deployment of Web-based instruction and instructional resources."
At UMaine, usage times per person range from minutes a month to nearly continuous, 24-hour access by some people. On average, 90 percent of users remote accessed the UMaine modem pool less than 30 hours a month in February of last year.
IT first offered free remote access to members of the University community in the early 1990s; UNET since the mid 1980s. In recent years, the "obvious manifestation" of an inadequate remote access system was the number of times users got busy signals.
"There were people who were getting more than their fair share of modem time," says Grover. "The effect of that was denying other people access. We looked at what would be a fair share of remote access and how to provide incentives so everyone has opportunities."
This summer, IT and UNET consolidated their modem pools at UMaine. The benefits, says Patton, include access via one phone number (990-0737), as well as increased diversity of usage. Now, instead of two pools containing a mix of slow and fast modems, the University has 168 high-speed modems, including 120 newly purchased by UNET, all running at 56 kbs per second.
BearWorks, the University of Maine action plan, calls for increased remote access and more reliability, says Patton. "By consolidating the modem pool, we already have improvements in service, and based on the experiences with charging plans on other campuses, we don't anticipate many busy signals for a while."
IT announced it was considering establishing a remote access fee structure in August. "The initial reaction in the University community was unfavorable," says Patton. "But in talking with people, we made it clear this was not a knee-jerk reaction; a lot of issues prompted the need for this. Once people hear those needs, they begin to understand."
Off-campus students argue that they should have the same easy Internet access from home that residential students have paying $100 annually for connectivity in their rooms, or by taking a short walk to a computer cluster. When off-campus students come to campus for free access, they encounter waiting lines for the clusters. However, free or low-cost connectivity, like cable and phone, remains an advantage of being on campus.
Nationwide, colleges and universities are increasingly outsourcing remote access service. In Maine, remote access grew out of an academic service only the University was providing. "An analogy is if cable television, a consumer service, had its roots in academia. Surely, it must be obvious the University should not be in the cable TV business now," says Patton.
"Internet connectivity is quickly becoming a consumer service, and we will one day conclude that the University should not be in the consumer-oriented Internet business either. And the University is not the only Internet service provider in town any more. I can understand UNET's role, because there is no single statewide ISP that can provide for the System's needs. However, that situation may change in the near future," Patton says.
The University doesn't pay for textbooks or the gas for students and employees to get to campus. People don't get phone service for free, says Patton. Yet with remote access, people have grown up with the concept that data is free.
"That image has to change," he says. "It used to be that the major telecommunications companies invested in voice services and the data came along for the ride. Now, the major investment is in data services, and voice services are becoming less significant. The same trend is seen at the University level."
With the modem pool consolidation, UMaine no longer directly supports remote access. However, IT will work with UNET to provide support for Orono users through its Help Center. By combining remote user support efforts, IT will be able to better focus on other on-campus technology and computer user support.
As of Dec. 1, IT is directed by John Gregory, who joins UMaine from Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania, where he was assistant vice president of information and instructional technologies.