More than half of the students in the survey said they have checked MySpace or Facebook or sent or received e-mail while using a laptop in class, and nearly half had sent an instant message to a friend.

The survey also found how and where students reach Wi-Fi. Students log in at coffee shops or restaurants (55%), in parks (47%) or in their cars (24%) in addition to libraries and laboratories. A total of 43% also said they had reached Wi-Fi using a handheld device instead of a laptop or desktop computer. Fully 90% believe Wi-Fi access is as essential to an education as a classroom or a computer.

Wi-Fi has become so prevalent on college campuses that said Wi-Fi penetration should reach 99% of all campuses by 2013. Colleges worldwide spent about US$137 million in 2007 on Wi-Fi access points and controllers, a figure that's expected to grow to $837 million in 2013, according to ABI. For lower grades, between kindergarten and grade 12, Wi-Fi equipment sales were about $47 million in 2007. That figure is expected to hit $644 million in 2013, ABI said.

The Wi-Fi Alliance survey did not explore how campus CIOs feel about Wi-Fi, although some universities to keep the service consistent and widely available, as well as secure. At Concordia University in Montreal, for instance, officials in January reported that was considered important in keeping students satisfied.

, Jorge Mata, the CIO at the Los Angeles Community College District, which serves 140,000 students in nine colleges, said that students often ask for better Wi-Fi coverage, not faster throughput. "From an educational standpoint, I agree with them, because we know that the longer students are on campus, the greater their chances of success," he said. The colleges in the district all serve commuters.