Georgetown announced a multi-year partnership with Cisco to modernize connectivity on Jan. 20. This new partnership includes the largest deployment of Wi-Fi 7 technology in higher education, spanning classrooms, residence halls, athletic facilities, research labs, and other spaces on both the hilltop and downtown campuses.
Georgetown students have shared issues with current connectivity, including slow speeds, unreliable connection to SaxaNet, the university’s primary wireless network, and the need to depend on less secure GuestNet for basic tasks.
Cisco is a leading provider of IT, networking, and cybersecurity infrastructure, best known for manufacturing routers, switches, and software that power the internet and corporate networks.
Wi-Fi 7 will deliver speeds up to 4.8 times faster than Wi-Fi 6. The WiFi will use a wider range of wireless spectrum, including the newly available 6 GHz band, often referred to as a “new, wide, and empty highway.” The new connectivity will significantly reduce lag, and better support the growing number of devices students, faculty, and staff bring to campus.
Current internet at Georgetown provides about 100 Megabits per second (Mbps) per connection for both upload and download, an “ideal average” among U.S. universities, where campus speeds typically range from 35 Mbps to over 125 Mbps, according to industry benchmarks. Speeds at this level generally support simultaneous use across multiple devices for activities such as high-definition streaming, video conferencing, large file downloads, and online gaming across multiple devices for efficient work on campus.
The upcoming Wi-Fi 7 upgrade will deliver speeds up to 46 Gbps, or 46,000 Mbps, bringing faster, more reliable connectivity to the Georgetown community and better supporting today’s high-density internet demands.
Monica Amirbekian (CAS ‘29), a physics major who relies on fast Wi-Fi for her science classes, highlighted the importance of this Wi-Fi change for students like herself.
“I know better connectivity all around is very helpful for all students, as we all work with technology now, but as a STEM major, when working with large data sets or various types of computational software, it’s important that the connection is fast and reliable to work efficiently and effectively,” Amirbekian said.
Georgetown is focusing the Wi-Fi 7 deployment on high-density areas, such as residence buildings and large lecture halls, to address what Chief Information Officer Doug Little calls the “stadium effect,” where a concentration of devices in one place can slow the network. This issue is often felt during move-in week, finals, a cold Saturday when everyone is streaming, or in lecture halls where hundreds of laptops compete for signal. By targeting these areas first, this upgrade will improve connectivity where and when it is most needed.
Little said that the university’s academic and research goals require network infrastructure that matches its forward-looking ambitions. He added that the partnership ensures students have a seamless experience when on Saxanet.
“This investment ensures our students, faculty, and staff have the seamless, secure connectivity they need to excel in a rapidly evolving digital landscape,” Little said in a statement to FacilitiesDive.
The project, set to span six years, involves careful planning to preserve Georgetown’s historic buildings by assessing physical infrastructure and cabling to minimize disruptions during new installations. This development will also focus on security, incorporating multi-factor authentication, end-to-end network visibility, and analytics to detect threats and protect the campus’s data.
Cisco isn’t just providing new infrastructure. Its collaboration with the University will extend to Cisco advising Georgetown on best practices for maintaining the systems with new technologies. “Their engineering team and their roadmap team keeps us up to date about cutting-edge advancements in the product,” Little said.
This initiative, focused on fast, reliable connectivity, will put Georgetown at the forefront of network access in higher education. From accessing online research tools to using online platforms for class communication, students, faculty, and staff rely on stable, high-speed WiFi to engage in academic work.
The growing use of AI on campuses also corresponds with this increased need for fast WiFi. According to recent data, 90 percent of students now use AI tools for academic purposes and 66 percent reported using it within the past semester to support in their learning.
Senior Vice President of the U.S. Public Sector at Cisco, Gary DePreta, highlighted the need for better connectivity on university campuses. “In higher education, ‘fast’ is the past. ‘Instant’ is the future,” DePreta said.
