Entering freshmen who brought laptops (that's almost all of them) can now carry them down the hall to their friends' dorm rooms and stay connected. Wi-Fi service (known on campus as Red Rover) has been extended throughout all North Campus buildings. Wi-Fi is available in common rooms in parts of West Campus and in Collegetown. CIT plans to add an additional 540 access points to those areas by fall 2010. Cellular phone service also is expanding.

A recent nationwide survey found that students consider Wi-Fi "as essential to education as classrooms," and that its availability could influence their choice of school.

Once signed up with Red Rover service, a computer will recognize and connect to it anywhere on campus, including all libraries and most classrooms. Visitors to campus who don't have Cornell netIDs can also connect by filling out a short online form. See http://www.cit.cornell.edu/services/redrover/howto.cfm for details and click the "Coverage" link for a map of buildings served.

As promised, AT&T has added new cellular antennas on Bradfield and Mary Donlon halls, enhancing coverage throughout the campus, but particularly in freshman housing on North Campus, matching coverage that was already available from Verizon. New antennas are designed, CIT says, "to complement the university's historical campus aesthetics." iPhones should now connect just about anywhere on campus -- except perhaps underground, and technicians are working on that. Meanwhile, iPhones and other smartphones can connect via Red Rover. AT&T's network on campus and in the greater Ithaca area fully supports both 2G (EDGE) and 3G (UMTS) services. Moving out of town, however, users will fall back to 2G. AT&T has so far deployed 3G only in the major population centers in upstate New York.

As a related sign of the times, landline phones are no longer standard in dorm rooms, although students still can sign up for one.