Minnesota State University, Mankato and South Central College will be installing a new high tech phone system this spring. This new system will communicate across the network rather than using traditional phone wiring. The technology, known as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), adds features and capabilities not available in standard telephones. VoIP also reduces time and costs when phones need to be moved.
Minnesota State Mankato is one of the last colleges to move off of Centrex phone service and the first major university in Minnesota to make the switch to VoIP. Several other Minnesota colleges and MnSCU have been using VoIP technology for several years. VoIP technology is predicted to be the future of voice communication for both wired, wireless, and cellular voice and video communication.
Throughout MSU and SCC history, traditional phone service, called Centrex, has been provided directly from HickoryTech. Every phone on campus has a separate line and is billed on a monthly basis. Most of the savings from a new phone system, commonly called a private branch exchange (PBX), is due to a computerized switch that allows many phones to use relatively few incoming and outgoing lines.
Recurring monthly costs have prohibited emergency phones from being installed in labs and classrooms. VoIP phones in the classrooms require purchase of the phone and installation, but no recurring monthly phone bill.
In the near future, long distance calls to other MnSCU institutions that have VoIP capabilities may be toll free. Additionally, as SIP protocols are implemented throughout the world, many long distance calls will be placed across the Internet resulting in low or no-cost long distance calls.
The current Centrex service is set to expire June 30, 2005. The current plan is to install and test the new phone system, provide informational meetings where faculty and staff can see the phones and try them out, classes will be available to teach how to use the features of the new system, phones will be placed throughout campus, and the cutover will happen once everything is ready. A detailed implementation plan will be prepared by HickoryTech and communicated to faculty and staff through the telecommunications web site when this is available.
Residence Hall phones will continue to use standard analog phones rather than VoIP phones, but the lines will be integrated into the campus system.
Phone numbers will remain the same as well as 4-digit dialing capabilities.
