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Telecommunications >> VoIP is for Victory
5/27/2005
Loud and Clear
VoIP took a different form at the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff, where IT officials recently implemented the technology to achieve lower long-distance phone costs—both for the school itself and for parents and friends of students, as well. The product, Click-to-Talk from CrystalVoice (www.crystalvoice.com), is a program that, once downloaded from the school’s Web site, enables visitors to convert their home computers into VoIP telephones. To use it, a visitor opens the software, plugs in a standard external microphone or telephone handset, heads for the Web site to input an extension number on campus, and quite literally,clicks a button to dial. It’s that simple.
The CrystalVoice solution was part of an exhaustive effort in 2004 to convert the entire Pine Bluff campus to VoIP. As the school’s traditional telecommunications equipment became obsolete, technologists decided that the most cost-effective solution would be to replace the old PBX by running voice and data over the same fiber-optic lines. Officials invested an undisclosed amount in VoIP servers from Cisco, bought VoIP phones for all users, and set up an annual technology fee to cover the cost of the equipment. Next came CrystalVoice. Willette Totten, assistant director of Technical Services, says she pushed this technology as a wayto level the playing field and give her school a chance to compete with other institutions for homegrown talent.
“It’s no secret that, being here in rural Arkansas, our students don’t have a lot of money,” she explains, noting that the Click-to-Talk service is included in the annual fee, and that students are allowed to receive an unlimited number of CrystalVoice calls. “This technology, and the ability to enable our students to talk to family members for free, was our way of giving [the students] another reason to enroll at Pine Bluff.”
So far, the overall investment has paid huge dividends. While the conversion to VoIP cost nearly as much as the school would have spent to fix its PBX, the university has seen overall long-distance fees drop precipitously; now that all faculty and staff members make their calls via Internet, long-distance bills have virtually disappeared. Recently, says Totten, interest in the university has shot through the roof. She declines to reveal specific enrollment stats, but notes that more students enrolled on her campus this past year than in any other year in the school’s history. And for the first time, she adds, the school has recruited two foreign students: two Canadians, who (predictably) now talk to family members almost daily.
Why Save When You Can Earn?
At the University of Evansville (IN), technologists have turned to VoIP not only to save money, but to make it. The effort began in the fall of 2003, when the school set out to renegotiate its age-old contract for the PBX-based Centrex system from telecom giant SBC (
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