Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology
Features
Telecommunications: Can Cisco Answer the Call?
9/29/2004
In fact, part of Nortel’s appeal is the company’s extensive PBX experience married to its growing VoIP expertise. Consider the background of Frank Shepherd, Nortel’s director of IP Telephony and Engaged Business Applications. The 22-year company veteran amassed PBX expertise for nearly two decades and spotted the VoIP opportunity in 1997. “My team mastered the dial-tone world and began assessing VoIP more than six years ago,” says Shepherd. “Now, we’ve got a full product line and a network of partners ready to assist with deployments.”
And carriers such as SBC Communications (www.sbc.com),
for instance, are getting into the act: SBC now offers multimedia communication
solutions based on VoIP equipment from Nortel. Faced with falling demand for
traditional phone services, SBC and other telecom companies—AT&T,
MCI (www.mci.com), Qwest Communications
(www.qwest.com), Verizon
(www22.verizon.com),
and others—have aggressively pushed into the VoIP market this year. Those
telecom giants also face heated competition from startups such as Net2Phone
(www.net2phone.com) and
Vonage (www.vonage.com),
which typically target small businesses and residential customers with low-cost
VoIP services. Vonage, a privately held startup, is among the residential VoIP
leaders, with 250,000 customers. It’s unclear how much of a push the company
intends to make into the university marketplace.
| Know Your Options |
| A sampling of major VoIP product suppliers: Avaya Inc., www.avaya.com 3Com Corp., www.3com.com Cisco Systems Inc., www.cisco.com Lucent Technologies Inc., www.lucent.com Nortel Networks Inc., www.nortelnetworks.com |
How to Plug In
Regardless of which supplier a university chooses, VoIP rollouts require plenty of prep work and network reconfiguration. Brandeis, for instance, installed UPS (uninterruptible power supplies) from emergency power supplies designer American Power Conversion (APC) Corp. (www.apc.com) in more than 100 wiring closets, prior to rolling out VoIP. The reason: Unlike traditional phones, VoIP phones need emergency power during brownouts and blackouts. The university also embraced power-over-Ethernet, a standard that sends low-voltage electricity from wiring closets to desktops, over network connections. This negates the need to plug every VoIP phone into a wall outlet.
Although Brandeis’ deployment proceeded without a hitch, CIO Hanson warns about possible trouble spots. In particular: It’s difficult to find skilled VoIP consultants and integrators who have multiple projects under their belts. Brandeis overcame that obstacle via a campus/vendor partnership with Verizon Communications’ consulting arm, a longtime Cisco partner with telecom and VoIP experience.
Recommended Reading
- Microsoft Changes Virtualization Licensing Rules
Microsoft has made substantial changes to its virtualization licensing program, changes that will lower the cost of using virtualization for many customers.
- Vorex Upgrades Web-based Data Collection Tool for Schools
Vorex has released an update to its Vorex Online Survey, a Web-based data collection tool designed to allow schools to collect information and gather feedback from education stakeholders.
- Georgia Virtual Tech Moves to Angel LMS for Web-based Instruction
Georgia Virtual Technical College has selected the Angel Learning Management Suite (LMS) as the platform for its portal to deliver Web-based instruction to Georgia's 33 technical colleges and one Board of Regents college.
- Video Spotlight: Campus Technology 2008 Keynote Address
Adrian Sannier, technology officer for Arizona State University, discusses strategies for putting in place ground-breaking plans that will serve the next generation of students. These are actionable visions that include strategic technology choices--advancements that may be unfamiliar or even unpopular at first, but which carry enormous potential.
- Report Finds Dip in Microsoft's Browser Share
Microsoft lost browser market share over the last year, and the company's Windows Vista operating system has had "slow" market adoption among individuals and enterprises, according to a report issued by management consulting firm Janco Associates Inc.
- AT&T 'Big Mobile' Grant Extended
AT&T has extended the deadline for its first-ever Big Mobile On Campus Challenge, a competition that calls on college and university faculty and students to develop apps for mobile devices. The top prize includes $10,000 and a trip to the October Educause 2008 conference for the winning individual or team.
