Author Archives: Margaret Fischel

VoIP comes to the Snow Bowl

Telephone Services recently installed a new voice over IP telephone system at the Middlebury College Snow Bowl.  It is an Aastra MX-One Lite telephony server which integrates fully to the main campus Aastra (Ericsson) phone system.  Next time you need to call the Bowl just dial SNOW (7669).

Our local contractor, Business Telephone Systems, working with our telephone system vendor, Black Box Network Services, installed the new server and phones in late September.  We are using the existing campus fiber network that was connected to the Bowl in the spring of 2009.  Howie McCausland and I tested the voice quality over the fiber with the vendor this past August.  Our network passed the test with flying colors.

The Snow Bowl now has a combination of IP phones in the offices and analog lines elsewhere.   The two major requirements for the new system were that it had enough analog trunk lines to accommodate the telephones at the lift load and unload stations and that the system not need dedicated bandwidth on the fiber.  A POE switch was installed to keep the IP phones going during a power outage, and in the event of a network outage the phones will failover to one of the four telephone company analog trunks remaining.

BFP article on area college student phones

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20091112/NEWS0213/91111028&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL

The preceding Burlington Free Press article was published on 11/12/09.  In addition to Middlebury, UVM and St. Michaels College recently removed their room phones.  But I do find  UVM’s claim that they saved a half million dollars supporting 2800 student phone lines rather amazing.

Student room telephone service to be removed January 1, 2010

LIS announced to students earlier this week that telephone services will be removing dial tone and telephone equipment from residential hall rooms unless a student requests that we keep their service in place.  The deadline for those requests is Sunday, November 15.  From then through December we’ll be working to re-route remaining dorm telephone lines and remove port cards with a goal of reducing our active landlines by 2000.   Ginnie Bukowski is shepherding this part of the project working with our contractor and facilities services.  During the week of December 7, recycling services will place bins in dormitories where students can deposit their telephones.  The phones will be moved to the Recycling Center where the equipment will be processed for either re-sale or recycling of parts. 

The consequence of reducing our maintenance costs is that we no longer have full-time telecommunications maintenance services. Thus, there may be a delay for individual telephone and network repairs and installations as of January 1, though major repairs will continue to be a high priority.

AlertFind Expands to Schools Abroad

Submitted by Peggy Fischel

The Schools Abroad directors expressed interest in using the AlertFind emergency notification system at their schools. Liz Ross, associate director of Off-Campus Study, and I conducted two tests this winter with the directors and will train them as team administrators for their individual schools this summer.

Cell Phone Changes Afoot

Submitted by Peggy Fischel

With the recent announcement from the CFO that most College-owned cell phones must revert to personal service due to IRS requirements, Ginnie Bukowski kicked into high gear. She convened a well-attended Q&A meeting with affected parties who have Verizon Wireless service and is now consulting with small groups and individuals to help them through the process. LIS will continue to maintain the BlackBerry Enterprise Server and add users who require Outlook e-mail and calendaring service for business purposes. 

The new cell policy was devised by the Controller’s Office with input from Telephone Services.  Even if you are not entitiled to a College allowance, employees can get discounted service from Verizon Wireless.  If other carriers offer discounts, we will add that information in the future.

Update from Telephone Services

Submitted by Peggy Fischel

Ginnie Bukowski attended AMCOM’s Connect ’08 Conference in Minneapolis, October 12-15.  She learned about the stability of Telident’s future, our 911 system, which had been acquired by AMCOM earlier in the year, and their suite of other products – most recently CommTech Wireless purchased less than two weeks before.  VoIP, voice recognition, and 911 products were the focus of the sessions she attended.  The most significant moments during these days were the frequent opportunities to talk with Telident’s product manager and application engineer.  Suggestions that will improve the software were discussed.  She was told some of her and others’ ideas may make it into the 9.0 version, which is anticipated early next year.