VoIP deployed at Australian university

An Australian university has installed VoIP services across its six campuses and says it is making substantial savings as a result.

The University of Western Sydney (UWS) claimed it has cut annual costs by AU$500,000 (£313,000) because of the rollout, which covers 4,000 users, itnews.com.au reports.

To complete the rollout, existing phone handsets were converted to VoIP, while outgoing private automatic branch exchange (PABX) infrastructure was keep as a backup for one week after the IP telephony solution was deployed.

UWS IT director Mick Houlahan said the installation went smoothly at all of the academic institution's campuses, which will allow staff to have the same phone number regardless of their location onsite.

Implementation of the two new VoIP servers, which began in June 2009 and took a year to complete, replaced six Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) systems and 60 PABX units.

This announcement follows the news earlier this month that the United Arab Emirates University is to deploy a similar system across its 120-hectare campus.