RADFORD -- Over the past year, the Division of Information Technology (DoIT), along with an external consultant, has carefully reviewed telephone costs and services to determine how to best meet the telephone needs of the University community.

For the last several years, RU has used a mix of Verizon Centrex and Voice over IP (VoIP) to provide phone service to faculty, students and staff. Verizon currently provides phone service for about 2,500 university telephone lines.

To provide enhanced functionality and reduce on-going cost, Radford University will be moving faculty and staff telephone lines to a campus-managed VoIP system beginning this summer. VoIP utilizes the campus network to route on-campus calls, while a Verizon connection is required only for those calls that need to be routed off campus. This change reduces the total number of lines needed from Verizon and the cost associated with each line.

VoIP will also allow RU to more easily relocate phone lines as needed without additional costs from Verizon. Business offices, deans and department chairs will be equipped with multi-line digital VoIP phones with enhanced functionality and features. Faculty offices will be equipped with a new analog phone providing caller ID, speaker phone and a voice mail indicator light. The server upgrades for this environment have been completed and the rollout of new phones will begin as staff move back into Heth Hall in early August. The deployment of the new phone system will continue throughout campus over the next several months with an anticipated completion date of January 2010.

With the rapid increase in cell phone usage over the last several years, the usage of land lines in the residence halls has diminished dramatically. Because of this, telephone service in the residence hall rooms will be discontinued beginning this fall. This change is consistent with many other universities in Virginia and elsewhere. Emergency notification capabilities are being upgraded in residence halls by placing speakers in the hallways that can provide audio messages in the event of an emergency. Hallway phones are also being added on each floor of the Residence Halls allowing students to place local, toll free and emergency calls when needed.

The majority of the projected costs for these two projects were paid from FY09 year-end funds.