Despite the university's decision this semester to raise the weekly allocation from 1.5 gigabytes to 2, students have been exceeding Internet bandwidth limits at the same rate as last year, according to Information Technology Services (ITS).

According to ITS records, 2,239 students have received first, second or third warnings compared to last year's 2,300 and 11 students have been restricted to 56k access this semester compared to 14 last year. ITS allows students to exceed weekly bandwidth limits three times before permanently downgrading their connection speed for the semester.

"Generally, students who receive a warning never exceed the limit again," said Robin Anderson, ITS director of communications. "However, some students do have second and third warnings and ultimately have their access shut down."

Despite ITS' efforts to inform users, students said they are often surprised to hear that they've gone over their bandwidth limit.

"I don't know how it happened," said Sarah Barrett (freshman-geoscience), who received her first warning during her first week of school. "They don't tell you what made you go over in the e-mail they send." Barret suspects that video chatting may have been responsible.

Tom Frakes (freshman-geology) said he had a similar experience.

"I got downgraded to 56k in my third or fourth week here," he said. "I remember watching a few streaming videos and downloading Google Earth, but I still don't see how that got me up to two gigabytes."

Both Barret and Frakes said they have not exceeded bandwidth again.

The university moved to raise the weekly allocation to the current level Aug. 21.

"Two gigabytes per week was the best guesstimate based on the increasing legitimate needs for students' classwork," Anderson said.

Although many students said that the amount allotted is fair, others have said adjustments will be imminent.

"It's well within the range required for educational purposes," Robert Frieden, a professor in the College of Communications, said. "However, as media such as video podcasts of lectures become more prevalent online, the allocation may be insufficient."

Anderson acknowledged that the weekly allocation might have to be raised again in the future.

"ITS periodically analyzes what comparable universities allocate to their students, as well as what new technologies would impact bandwidth restrictions," she said, "and we determine what a reasonable increase would be."

To some students, a high-speed Internet connection is a newfound luxury, as only 19 percent of Americans have a broadband connection in their home.

"I definitely feel left out of the internet when I'm on my home computer," said Justin Milewski (sophomore-history education), who cannot get DSL service in his hometown of Edinburg.

"The connection is so slow, I can't do school assignments."

Frieden said the "first and last mile" of connections are the most expensive to build and maintain.

"In rural areas, where infrastructure investment is low, customers are sizably disadvantaged online," he said.