With the Board of Trustees voting unanimously to approve an onsite survey of El Camino College’s wireless network on Monday, March 20, the multi-phase project of upgrading the campus’ Wi-Fi can commence.

Board of Trustees President Kenneth Brown said El Camino’s Wi-Fi has had “a bad reputation” when introducing the item during the meeting.

El Camino’s current access points run on Wi-Fi 5 ever since the last time the network was upgraded in 2017.

Phase one of the Wi-Fi upgrade will bring in members of CDW-G, a provider of technology products and services for business, government and education, to test the current Wi-Fi access points.

This active survey will have their engineers test El Camino’s network so a map design of the needed Wi-Fi coverage areas on campus can be made.

The survey will give more accurate locations on campus that need Wi-Fi access points so employees and students can take advantage of newer speeds.

The Wi-Fi upgrade project would update current indoor access points on campus to Wi-Fi 6E and outdoor access points to Wi-Fi 6, while also introducing more coverage areas in the parking lots and Murdock Stadium.

The networking standards Wi-Fi 6 and 6E, released in 2019 and 2020 respectively, are more efficient and offer faster speeds than Wi-Fi 5.

Chief technology officer Loic Audusseau leads the Information Technology Services division and helps oversee the development and implementation of El Camino’s technology strategies.

Audusseau was at the meeting to help advocate for the approval of phase one of the project and he spoke with The Union after The Board approved it.

“I’m really excited to get the approval of the Board,” Audeusseau said. “It is the right decision to bridge the digital equity gap and provide good Wi-Fi to everyone on campus.”