On Campus

Ghetto goes hi-tech

Kingston’s student-heavy neighbourhood to get WiFi coverage

Queen’s grads are lending a hand to students at the school by providing them with free Internet access.

An Internet-service provider named Ockham Communications, currently led by MBA graduate Shawn Gee, has set up six devices throughout the Queen’s “student ghetto” that will provide free wireless Internet. Gee said the goal is to expand the network to cover the entire downtown core.

The service is called Mi WiFi, and it will be run free of chargeunlike several municipally run services around North America. Advertising revenue will cover any costs incurred by Ockham.

Why set up students first?

“We looked at this market and thought … ‘Who really uses Wi-Fi?’ ” Gee told Kingston’s Whig-Standard. “We thought this could be a really good vehicle to speak to the students.”

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In other Queen’s news, the frosh concert that was in flux after the Alma Mater Society (AMS) was denied a noise by-law exemption by the city has a new home. The concert will take place at Kingston’s Fort Henry.

“This event demonstrates the willingness of student leaders to incorporate the needs of the Kingston community, and is a positive step towards improving student-city partnerships,” Paul Tye, AMS municipal affairs commissioner, told Kingston This Week.

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