University migrates students to VoIP
University of the West of England rolls out internet communication technology
The university will gradually rollout VoIP phones
The University of the West of England is migrating to a voice over internet protocol (VoIP) telecommunications system to provide a new student village with 45 additional extensions.
The organisation will then roll out further connections across six university sites, as funds become available.
But telecommunications manager Jonathan Barstow does not expect a full rollout of the Alcatel Lucent technology for another eight to 10 years.
‘We will roll out extensions as and when funds become available to buy telephones and user licences,’ he said.
According to Barstow, the main challenges are getting to know a new system and losing control of the transmission medium.
‘We now have to rely on our transmission colleagues whereas before we had full control of the existing copper wires,’ said Barstow.
‘If we want to put a new telephone in now, we have to get the data port configured and have to rely on someone else to do it,’ he said.
Barstow says the organisation will see a reduction in the amount of work required from improved flexibility when moving phone extensions once the system is fully rolled out.
A return on investment will be achieved over five years through savings on the circuits, he says.
The university is also looking at implementing an audio conference bridge over IP called Alcatel MyTeamwork which allows sharing of data applications as well as video conferencing.
‘So for instance a lecturer could video record a lecture and students could then have the ability to replay the lecture,’ said Barstow.
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