Use of VoIP in American Educational Institutions

Recently, there have been many discussions about VoIP in Bangladesh. We are all very interested in this advanced technology. However, many people think of VoIP simply as a way to make cheap calls abroad. In reality, it can also be used as an internal telephone system for organizations. Having lived in Japan and America for a long time, I have seen this modern technology being used everywhere, and its adoption is increasing day by day. In today’s article, I will discuss some examples and case studies of how VoIP is used in American educational institutions. If we use such systems in Bangladesh, we too can benefit from this technology and establish a telephone system for organizations at a lower cost.

Any educational institution, including schools and universities, requires a telephone system, and setting it up often comes with many challenges. Traditionally, the solution has been to set up a PBX system first. However, installing a PBX is not a simple task. First, you have to identify suitable PBX companies, then invite them, create tenders, and finally set up the PBX system. But now we have a new technology: VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol). If we use this, setting up a telephone system for an organization is much simpler compared to installing a PBX.

The first major advantage is that it can be implemented at a very low cost. Another convenience is that you can use the existing telephone system. That is, if an organization already has a PBX system in place, it can be converted to VoIP easily, safely, and cost-effectively. With VoIP, a variety of services can be provided very easily—services that are difficult or impossible to provide with a traditional PBX.

I’d like to mention the example of Robert Morris University. This university had been using a Nortel (www.nortel.com) PBX system for ten years. They started to encounter problems with this ten-year-old system. Around 2005, they noticed that their old system’s channels were almost full. After 2005, they needed more terminals and telephone sets. At this critical moment, IT Director Randy Johnson said, “When we needed to expand our PBX system, we considered what other solutions were available.” They found an open-source VoIP PBX solution called Asterisk (www.asterisk.org). It can provide numerous solutions and services, including calling, conferencing, and caller ID. Johnson said the biggest advantage was the significant cost savings. He reported that by implementing VoIP, the university managed to save around $25,000.

They used a solution called Diviun (www.diviun.com) along with HP (www.hp.com) servers. This is an example of using open-source solutions. Asterisk worked very well for their campus. They began using this new VoIP solution around June 2006.

There are two types of VoIP. One is hardware-based, like regular telephones, and the other is software-based, which can be used if you have an internet connection. Of course, open-source VoIP is not suitable for every situation. Some organizations use other commercial VoIP solutions. For example, the San Mateo County Community College District previously used a PBX system, but in 2003, when they needed to expand, they opted for a commercial VoIP solution from Siemens. These are called proprietary solutions rather than just commercial VoIP. Before choosing Siemens, they had their options evaluated by San Francisco solution provider Teecom (www.teecom.com). Teecom conducted a quality of service (QoS) assessment. The VoIP solution was rolled out gradually. As employee Vaskelis explained, a VoIP solution can’t be set up overnight. Their organization had 85 buildings, and each one transitioned from PBX to VoIP.

By 2005, many colleges, especially in California, adopted VoIP solutions for their telephone systems. Notable among these are Canada College in Redwood City and Skyline College in San Bruno.

In December 2005, San Mateo also adopted VoIP, installing it across all three campuses. Implementing VoIP helped these companies save nearly $0.5 million. After deciding to adopt VoIP, they needed to address the requirement for power to run these services. While considering how to reduce power use, Vaskelis noted that some devices can draw power directly from the Ethernet, such as USB modems that operate through USB alone and require no external power. Similarly, there are products that take power over Ethernet, known as PoE (Power Over The Ethernet). Vaskelis used these types of products.

Vaskelis shared that when they started this project in 2005, the hope was to have 60% of the work done by January 2006, meaning 60% of phones moved to VoIP. Amazingly, they reached 98%, with only 2% still on the old PBX system—something Vaskelis himself didn’t expect. They managed to save $525,000.

But the most important aspect is that VoIP not only saves money; it also allows you to add many additional services that are not possible with PBX. One of these is a conferencing system. VoIP offers conferencing solutions that let teams hold meetings internally. This is a fantastic approach for daily communication. Moreover, you can even send emails at the same time, or set up a system to send voice messages directly to email. Such integration between phone systems and email is possible with VoIP.

Image: VoIP can be used as an internal telephone system for organizations.

Similarly, it can also be connected to external telephone lines.

I’d like to share my own experience in this regard. In our consulting firm, we use VoIP services. To reduce costs, we use the open-source Asterisk VoIP solution. This Asterisk server operates in both Japan and America. We use VoIP to communicate among ourselves. The major benefit is that calling Japan from the USA used to be very expensive, but with VoIP, we’ve been able to reduce those costs to almost nothing.

All our employees in both the US and Japan have VoIP phones. When we’re traveling, we use softphones to connect via the VoIP server, and in the office, we use the physical VoIP phones. The biggest advantage of VoIP is that we can easily have conferences and make decisions quickly. Even radio services can be provided through VoIP. If we’re unable to answer the phone, voice mails are forwarded to our email. There are some services that PBX systems simply cannot provide, but VoIP makes possible.

Our organization uses broadband internet to run our VoIP service. But in Bangladesh, it might be feasible for an organization to have a server running VoIP services through a LAN. It has been seen that this can be implemented at a lower cost compared to PBX. VoIP systems cost less, both in terms of hardware and maintenance, than PBX. Expanding a PBX system is costlier, whereas with VoIP, it is much more affordable.

There’s a lot of discussion about VoIP in our country right now. But many people only know it as a way to make cheap international calls. In reality, any organization can use VoIP as their internal phone system. For example, a garment industry with branches in Dhaka, Chittagong, and Rajshahi could use VoIP to communicate between locations. Similarly, educational institutions can deploy this technology as well—for example, using it as the telephone system for university offices and dormitories.

(This article was published in Amardesh on September 18, 2007: Link)