MyVoIPnews

Cedar growing like ivy

Cedar Point Communications, Inc., producer of VoIP switching technologies for business VoIP providers, is growing on universities, as evidenced by a pair of recent announcements.

Latest comes news that Cedar Point has entered into a five-year research and deployment agreement to provider advanced VoIP solution applications on the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus. The contract calls for what is reportedly the first full deployment of the Cedar Point VoIP solution within a campus environment.

Under terms of the agreement, Cedar Point Safari C3 Multimedia Switching System will be deployed; the new infrastructure seeks to service approximately 30,000 faculty, student and administrative staff.

Safari C3 performed a successful trial at U. Mass. in 2006 in which Safari’s VoIP solution was installed as a replacement for existing PBX and trunking technology within the UMass communications network in residence halls.

Though the deal may be the first Cedar Point project of such extraordinary magnitude on a university campus – in fact, Cedar Point founder/executive vice president George Kassas was excellently quoted over at Information Week as saying “We’re still in the phase of determining the scope of the project … We see this as a sort of Swiss Army knife of technologies – WiMax, multimedia, emerging notification, video, text.” – be sure that the firm is attempting to harvest this fruitful sector.

Earlier this month, Cedar Pointers announced that the firm was to team with PAETEC and Sentri, Inc. in order to develop a comprehensive VoIP solution that “addresses the unique needs of colleges and universities in achieving the full benefits of a converged IP network, including the migration to Voice over IP.”

And in May, Cedar announced an agreement with Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. A&M U. will be performing a trial of its SAFARI C3 Multimedia Switching System. In the Lone Star State, Texas A&M is using its testing facilities at the Internet2 Technology Evaluation Center in evaluating the capabilities of SAFARI C3 to meet the needs of university telecommunications network providers.

Meanwhile, back in the present, a dude named Jim Barthold over at Cable360.net touches on the Cedar/U. Mass. deal in VoIP Hung Up on College Campus?

“It says something about current VoIP deployments,” writes Barthold, “that a college campus, the fermenting point for innovation and techno-geeks, will use the technology as just another way to efficiently deliver phone calls.”

Plus, Kassas gets in more stuff about the hee-yooge-ness of it all in the piece: “Despite some misconceptions that public schools are not cutting edge and future-thinking institutions, what we’re talking to UMass about and what they’ve done in terms of applications that they’re going to offer in the next six, 12, 18 and 36 months far exceeds anyone’s imagination.”

Good win for Emerald Isle firm

A prestigious win was scored by Irish IT company Globalnet in taking a tender put out by non-governmental organization Global eSchools and Communities Initiative. The GeSCI program involves provision of complete IT service including a VoIP solution in offices in Bolivia, Ghana and India.

Under terms of the agreement, Globalnet will provide full hardware maintenance, support, administration, monitoring and a support desk service. Gloablnet, which employs eight staff between its Dublin and Naas offices, will also be installing and managing the company’s VoIP system.

Globalnet managing director George O’Dowd explained the necessity for proper business VoIP in the developing-world offices over at SiliconRepublic.com: “An employee in any country ideally should have the same IT experience as their colleagues in Dublin. However, due to poor telecoms infrastructure in Bangladesh, for example, that is not always possible. We have to be creative and try to find a compromise that works for their field-based employees.”

It’s the Arts

Tonight on It’s the Arts, Pingtel has announced that The University of the Arts has selected Pingtel’s SIPxchange ECS to support 3,500 phones for faculty, staff, and students at its Philadelphia campus.

The SIPxchange rollout will begin from the student residential buildings that are connected to the campus gigabit backbone and will ultimately include all administrative offices, academic offices, and academic properties and offices currently employing University of the Arts’ Fujitsu9600 ES PBX system.

And now at the podium, Pingtel president/CEO William J. Rich: “These advantages, combined with the cost savings associated with an open source VoIP solution, will allow The University of the Arts to efficiently and cost effectively maintain a cutting-edge communications system now, and in the future.”

Cedar Point back to school

Cedar Point Communications, Inc., a producer of integrated VoIP switching technologies for service providers and of business VoIP, today announced an agreement with Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. A&M U will be performing a trial of its SAFARI C(Cubed) Multimedia Switching System.

Under terms of the agreement, Texas A&M will use its testing facilities at the Internet2 Technology Evaluation Center in evaluating the capabilities of SAFARI C(Cubed) to meet the needs of university telecommunications network providers. Initial tests to be performed include lab and field trials of SAFARI C(Cubed)’s ability to support SIP-based devices and TDM and VoIP solutions.

The Texas A&M ITEC mission statement includes “the advancement and deployment of internet technologies, with special expertise in areas associated with VoIP and information assurance.” Texas A&M University itself is America’s seventh-largest institution of higher learning, boasting enrollment of over 45,000, with 8,400 at the graduate level.

Earlier in the month, Cedar Point announced the first trial and evaluation of its SAFARI C(Cubed) Multimedia Switching System in the government sector, scoring the oldest national laboratory in the U.S., Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in good ol’ Berkeley, Calif.

Berkeley Lab is also testing the capabilities of SAFARI C(Cubed) to support current communications needs. Additionally, Cedar Point and Berkeley Lab are collaborating on research advanced applications for VoIP services.

Texas A&M has the answer

Meanwhile, at a campus halfway across the country, Texas A&M University has reportedly demonstrated a VoIP solution that allows “complying with federal requirement of Lawful intercept (LI) without expensive adjustments to their current network’s infrastructure.”

As reported in Campus Technology, the Texas A&M breakthrough is all about compliance with the FCC’s Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (or CALEA). Time is running out for VoIP providers to comply with federal requirements, with the deadline set for May 14.

On then-president Bill Clinton’s watch in 1994, CALEA was passed, defining the need of the state to perform wiretaps in questions of national security and requiring telecom companies to allow taps. In 2005, urged by the FBI, the FCC modified the law to extend to ISP and VoIP providers as well.

Over at Mercury News, industry writer Dean Takahashi recently speculated that such an order from the federal government could “crush a nascent technology and, ironically, jeopardize the nation’s security.” Compliance with the wiretapping rule would actually making the VoIP network in question more susceptible to attacks.

For anyone in charge of paying the bills, CALEA and particularly the lawful intercept requirements are a true headache in terms of expensive new technology to buy and systems to install.

The Texas A&M tool is touted as a new hope: “With a few weeks work, we were able to build a [VoIP] solution that meets the compliance standard for voice intercept. We are still looking into the data collection requirements,” said the university’s director of telecommunications, Walt Magnussen.

University of Buffalo buffaloed

The University of Buffalo has announced that the entire academic campus will be converted to a Voice over Internet Protocol telephone system. Scheduled for completion in 2010, the switchover will consolidate a whopping 75 extant telephone services currently operating on campus.

The conversion is part of the “UB 2020 IT Transformation” program, and a minor upgrade is promised for the networks on campus, thereby improving internet performance.

An investment of $3,000,000 investment will pay for installation and new technology. University of Buffalo estimates figure that $750,000 will saved annually, thanks to the single billing service and lower operation costs.

Uni VoIP for techies, not penny pinchers

The Association for Communications Technology Professionals in Higher Education held their VoIP summit this week and came to at least one interesting conclusion: “Saving money is no longer the object in VoIP deployments among colleges and universities – it is the search for converged communications and acceptance of the inevitable.”

Put another way, Texas A&M University telecom director Walt Magnussen is quoted over at Network World as having said, “We’ve gotten past the idea that IP is going to save us a lot of money.”

Reportedly, schools today are moving in the direction of VoIP because PBX vendors are phasing out traditional TDM PBXs. In fact, Magnussen estimated quick swapping out of TDM would cost A&M some $18 million, more than his department’s annual budget. “The universities with the highest percentage of VoIP installed are the smaller institutions where a lump-sum trade-out is financially feasible.”

Formed in 1971, the Association for Communications Technology Professionals in Higher Education is a nonprofit organization with a mission statement promising a commitment to “being the best source for information and advice relevant to telecommunications and other communications technologies on college and university campuses.” ACUTA is dedicated to the enhancement of teaching, learning, research, and public service by helping members achieve optimal use of communications technologies in higher education.

Rauland-Borg studies in schools

Rauland-Borg, a provider of communications and media management product for K-12 schools, has announced completion an informal survey among its distributor network. The survey emphasizes “the effects of structured data cabling architectures on the costs and installation of school communications systems.”

Rauland-Borg’s flagship product is Telecenter VoIP touted as “the first Voice over Internet Protocol-based school communications system designed for all the unique needs of the K-12 environment.” Rauland-Borg was founded in the 1930s and Telecenter VoIP was released in 2005.

Unifying the UK uni with VoIP

The VoIPization (Hey, it’ll be a word in about, what, a week?) of the United Kingdom continues, with the University of the West of England announcing plans this week to migrate to a voice over internet protocol telecommunications system to provide a new student village with 45 additional extensions.

The uni then plans to roll out further connections across six university sites. A full rollout with the Alcatel Lucent technology is scheduled for completion within as little as eight years, due to some financial limitations: “We will roll out extensions as and when funds become available to buy telephones and user licences,” said a university spokesman.

The university is also looking at implementing an audio conference bridge over IP called Alcatel MyTeamwork which allows sharing of data applications and video conferencing.

UNH helps Vonage, and vice versa

The University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory has been approved as the first external testing facility to pre-screen internet telephony devices for compatibility with Vonage broadband phone services. At Vonage’s request, vendors will ship test-products to the UNH-IOL for analysis of calling abilities and interoperability with the multi-vendor Vonage network.

The UNH-IOL will perform the testing as a service to members of its VoIP Consortium, a collaborative testing program with a mission statement to assist vendors, service providers and forums such as the SIP Forum and IMS Forum deliver quality, interoperable VoIP systems.

Established in 1988, the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory provides neutral third-party interoperability and conformance testing for data communications companies.