The evolution of eduroam during its 20-year existence has been very impressive. From an exclusively on-campus Wi-Fi to a city-wide phenomenon, it can now only be best described as a wave of change- and it is continuing to advance. Nothing demonstrates this growth potential better than RENU’s Metro eduroam, the off-campus wireless connection.

Launched on 1^st September 2020 as a solution to connectivity challenges faced by students and staff during the COVID-19 national lockdown, Metro eduroam has continued to take root even now when schools have been fully re-opened.

Having started with just 300 hotspots concentrated in the country’s Central Region, the Metro eduroam reach has nearly doubled in the number of hotspots and geographical coverage, in just a span of two years. In terms of geographical coverage, Metro eduroam has spread from just the initial three cities of Kampala, Mukono and Entebbe, to 14 more towns in other regions across Uganda as well.

This incredible growth has been partly attributed to the growing appreciation of eduroam by the member institutions as seen from the gradual increase in the uptake of the service. The number of institutions connected to eduroam has increased from 22 institutions as of 1^st September 2021 to 72 institutions by end of July 2022.

Besides the appreciation of the service by the members, there has been incredible support from the Internet Society Foundation through the Building Opportunities/Leveraging Technologies (BOLT) Grant Program, through which 98 new Metro eduroam hotspots were deployed across 14 more towns upcountry, in the first quarter of 2022. Currently, there are over 470 Metro eduroam hotspots across the country. All the Metro eduroam hotspot locations can be found here.

The number of institutions connected to eduroam is not only critical for the optimal use of our Metro eduroam spots but is also an inspiration for us to expand the reach of eduroam through deploying more hotspots. This is because more institutions getting connected to eduroam means that more students are eligible to use the Metro eduroam hotspots. It is only after an institution has been connected to eduroam and assigned login accounts that the institution’s students and staff are able to fully utilise the eduroam spots both on and off-campus. Therefore, having had more institutions joining eduroam in the past one year, there has been remarkable growth in the usage. Since September 2021, the Metro eduroam successful logins have grown from 609,916 to 5,444,541, new users (unique logins) from 1,556 to 21,923 and average daily peak traffic from 33 to 156 Mbps.

Top 5 Institutions Utilising Metro eduroam – A Comparison Between 2022 and 2021

During the past one year, we have also observed changes in the top institutions utilising the eduroam spots, and the most active locations. By September 2021, Uganda Christian University (UCU) and Mengo Hospital were top users on the list. In 2022, we see new institutions topping the list including Makerere University which is taking the lead, as well as Gulu University and Makerere University Business School (MUBS).

Top Active Locations – 2022 Vs 2021

The most active locations (hotspots) have also changed. We observe that we have new locations on the list as illustrated in the comparison below.