Wireless and Wired Public Internet Access
Bandwidth Details
Bandwidth Explained
Bandwidth, in the context of the Public Network, refers to the amount of data from off-campus that you download to or transmit from your computer during a one-week period. Bandwidth usage is reset once a week on your reset day, which is when you receive your weekly bandwidth allocation.
As a student, staff, faculty, or official visitor, you have a limited amount of external bandwidth that you may consume each week at no cost. Restrictions to external bandwidth consumption are in place to ensure that bandwidth is distributed fairly among users of the university network. Exceeding your external bandwidth allocation will cause you to be moved to the slower second-class network for up to one week, until your reset day. These limits apply to restricted.utexas.edu, guest.utexas.edu, and the wired Public Network.
However, there are no bandwidth restrictions for on-campus usage. For example, you can download/upload as much information as you need to/from internal University websites (ie www.utexas.edu, UT Direct).
| Role | Allocation/Week |
|---|---|
| Students | 500 Megabytes |
| Graduate Fellowships1 | 10 Gigabytes |
| Faculty | 100 Gigabytes |
| Full-time Staff and Official Visitors | 10 Gigabytes |
| Part-time Staff | 5 Gigabyte |
1Graduate fellowships imply full scholarships of $12,000 or more and are managed by the Graduate Office. Recipients of the following fellowships who are receiving $12,000 or more are eligible: Harrington Fellowships, Recruitment Fellowships, Diversity Recruitment, Diversity Mentoring Fellowships, National Science Foundation Fellowships, Continuing Fellowships.
Bandwidth Class Definitions
1st-class network - When you are within your weekly bandwidth allocation, your off-campus Internet activity will use the 1st-Class network, which is extremely fast.
2nd-class network - If you have exceeded your bandwidth allocation for the week, your off-campus Internet activity will use the 2nd-class network. You will still have access to the Internet, but it will be much slower.
Monitoring Bandwidth
You can monitor your external bandwidth usage by visiting the 
External Bandwidth Allocation Page (UT EID or Guest ID required). This page shows your current usage, your reset day, and your bandwidth notification options.
How much external bandwidth you have available depends on how much you have used during the current week. Once you have exceeded your external bandwidth allocation, you will be moved to the slower second-class network until your next reset day.
Supplemental Bandwidth
Students, staff, faculty, and official visitors may purchase additional bandwidth to supplement their default allocation. It is recommended that you look into the below options if you use the Internet on campus and exceed your weekly bandwidth limit often.
Bandwidth Subscriptions
A subscription plan is an option for you to supplement your weekly default bandwidth for a semester or academic year. You can choose from several tiers, each of which provides a different amount of additional bandwidth allotment per week. Depending on the amount of data you use, you should choose a plan that will best suit your data use in a week.
Students not living in the residential dorms, staff, faculty, and official visitors may purchase and manage their subscription from the Bandwidth Subscription Website.
Subscriptions purchased are prorated daily. If you cancel your service, you will be refunded the prorated amount for unused days. Subscriptions are NOT automatically renewed for the next semester or academic year. If you have additional questions, please contact the ITS Help Desk or call 512-475-9400.
Note: Students living in the residence halls must subscribe to Resnet
and are not eligible for the Bandwidth Subscription service. You receive a default Resnet Subscription plan, which is included in your room contract by the Division of Housing and Food Services, and follow a different set of standards.
Department Funded Bandwidth Project
Departments may purchase supplemental bandwidth allocations for faculty and staff through the Project Bandwidth system. See your departmental technical support contact to initiate a request through the UTnet Utilities.
Emergency One-Time Bandwidth
This emergency bandwidth option is NOT cost-effective, and it should only be purchased when you no longer have the option to increase your subscription plan or tier. When you purchase this type of bandwidth, it is NOT renewed weekly, and there are no refunds. You may purchase this one-time bandwidth from the TXshop.
| Bandwidth Amount | Price |
|---|---|
| 5 GB | $5 |
Last updated December 20, 2012 @ 1:30 pm
