Following the end of the spring semester, Information Technology Services will retire the lsusecure wireless network, making eduroam the primary Wi-Fi option for on-campus users.
Sheri Thompson, IT communications and planning officer, said the decision was made after a recent focus group meeting.
“There’s no use in continuing to support two networks that do the same thing,” said Hector Rios, assistant director of Networking and Infrastructure.
Rios said having multiple networks may be confusing to incoming students and other members of the University community.
“We want to make it as simple as possible,” Rios said.
While not all students are familiar with eduroam, it is a widely used wireless access network for educational institutions.
Rios said the University was one of the first places in the United States to implement it.
Eduroam started in Europe and has recently become more popular here, Rios said. Nearby institutions that use eduroam include Tulane University, Texas A&M, University of Houston, Rice University and the LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans.
Rios said there are a total of 143 institutions in the country using eduroam now.
University wireless users will be able to use their login information not only on the Baton Rouge campus, but any other location worldwide that uses eduroam, Rios said.
“If you’re backpacking in Europe and are by a university [with eduroam], you can hop on the Wi-Fi for free,” Thompson said.
“It’s a solid service, and it’s not going to go away,” Rios said.
Rios and Thompson said they expect mild issues during the initial transfer period because users will need to add “@lsu.edu” to their usernames.
Thompson said this addition is similar to what students must input now to access their University email accounts.
Other than this requirement, the eduroam access process will be the same as that of lsusecure.
“We’ve gone through it before without the world exploding,” Thompson said.
“If you’re backpacking in Europe and are by a university [with eduroam], you can hop on the Wi-Fi for free.”