March 2005 — Special Reports
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Integrating Voice Into the School Network: Benefits of Wireless VoIP
Voice communications are critical for the proper functioning of primary, secondary and higher education environments. At the K-12 level, teachers and staff must be able to communicate with each other between classrooms and the school office. Also, teachers often need to communicate between schools within a district as well as with the district office. Similarly, higher education institutions require faculty to be accessible not only in their offices, but while they are traveling about campus. In addition, many colleges and universities now offer voice services to students living on campus.
Though voice is clearly a crucial application for both K-12 and higher education, there are numerous obstacles a school faces when deploying traditional voice technology. These hurdles include budgetary constraints, limited technical resources, geographically dispersed campus buildings, and outdated infrastructures that cannot support new applications.
For these reasons and more, voice-over IP (VoIP) - specifically, wireless VoIP - has emerged as a popular choice for educational institutions. While only 19% of colleges and universities have formally deployed VoIP, 64% are considering it, according to the “EDUCAUSE Core Data Service 2003 Summary Report” (log on to www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/PUB8001.pdf). Though progressing more slowly, its adoption in K-12 is also on the rise. Furthermore, according to two surveys from Market Data Retrieval, 37% of K-12 public schools (from “The College Technology Review 2003-2004”) and 70% of colleges and universities (from “Technology in Education 2004”) report that they do use wireless networks. Together, VoIP and wireless technology offer better geographic coverage, increased mobility, improved network performance, and significant cost savings for schools and campuses.
K-12 Advantages
Today, the majority of U.S. classrooms are not equipped with phones. The existing voice system for most K-12 environments is a traditional PBX (private branch exchange), which provides a basic telecommunications link from the main office to the world outside of the school. This system typically d'es not allow teachers to communicate with each other or enable them to be reached directly by parents. It also d'es not let mobile staff, such as security and maintenance personnel, communicate with teachers or office staff. In addition, most schools do not have the budget to upgrade their existing PBX and install new phone lines for every classroom. And even if they did, the outdated infrastructure probably would not support mobile users.
Wireless VoIP can also help schools deploy additional voice services quickly and cost-effectively. Therefore, a school d'es not have to completely replace its current phone system to implement VoIP. Instead, they can use wireless technology to extend voice services to areas where it is currently unavailable. Most schools already have a high-speed IP network to provide access to the Internet and other network resources. So, by adding strategically placed wireless access points to the network, a school can allow access for mobile laptop users as well as provide the backbone for deploying Wi-Fi-equipped phones to teachers and other school personnel.
