Unified communications plan for Alabama university

VoIP systems have been adopted by the University of South Alabama in the US as the institution looks to improve its communications systems.

Using the university's existing data line infrastructure, the IP telephony solution will allow staff and students to collaborate across the campuses and beyond more easily and for free.

The VoIP service shares the capacity of the network with the data systems used by the 14,000 students and almost 6,000 faculty and staff members spread across the ten schools and colleges of the Mobile-based university.

Welcoming the installation of the new system, the higher education institution's associate vice president for university computer services, David Blough, added that further steps could be taken to improve the unified communications system.

"In the end, we foresee greater collaboration, productivity and efficiency among our faculty, students and staff," he said.

Alabama joins a growing roll-call of US colleges which have upgraded their communications with IP telephony functionality, including Howard University, Columbia University and Innsbruck Medical University.