Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you.
Much like Neil Armstrong’s famous quote as he first stepped foot on the moon, the above phrase was uttered by Alexander Graham Bell through his fledgling telephone wire to his assistant. Those first words not only ushered in the birth of telephone, they also killed the telegraph machine.
Since then, phones have advanced to the point where they resemble Captain Kirk’s futuristic communicator. Eclipsed only by the computer in terms of historical importance, it was inevitable that the two technologies would merge into one. Behold: VoIP.
The acronym stands for Voice over Internet Protocol and is the routing of voice conversations over the Internet or through any other IP-based network. Vonage has been making significant inroads south of the border as a VoIP provider but most traditional phone companies now offer the service. Here in Slave Lake, Northern Lakes College (NLC) has made the switch to VoIP through Telus.
College president Rick Neidig spoke with The Leader about the decision to switch to VoIP and what it means for NLC.
“Our old phone systems were becoming obsolete and difficult to service,” he says. “That was one of our drivers, old phone switches. We had a variety of types, models, and vintages of telephone switches in place. They all required their own maintenance and knowledge of different systems.”
With 30 campuses, the headaches surrounding the traditional phone lines led NLC to jump ship, as it were, in the winter and spring of 2006. Larger campuses like Slave Lake, Grouard, and High Prairie are fully VoIP now. Several smaller locations are (or will) undergoing the process before the entire college goes VoIP around February 2007.
“We wanted to put in one system that would serve all of our communities. So far, it’s working very well. The quality is very good and it’s quick and easy. It allows me to dial any of my sites with a four-digit dialing plan instead of dialing nine to get out and then a 10-digit number.”
Perhaps the two biggest advantages for NLC are the cost savings and flexibility. VoIP costs less that regular phone systems and permits single point presence for the new “switchboard”. “It allows us to connect all 30 communities with no long distance charges. In terms of the capital cost of the system, we expect to have a full payback on this in less than four years. Plus, our staff can now take turns manning the switchboard. It doesn’t matter if they’re in Grouard or Slave Lake. Just designate who looks after it and the public knows nothing is any different.”
Because VoIP is the union of telephony, computers, and Internet, voice mail and E-mail can be fully integrated. When he is away from his office and misses a call, his computer notifies him when he opens Microsoft Outlook.
“If I have a call that goes to voice-mail, it actually shows up as a message in my E-mail inbox. If I’m on the road in a hotel some place and I open up my email, I can click on the message and listen to my voice mail through my computer. And, I understand there are a lot of others features that we haven’t implemented yet.”
So far, Neidig has not experienced any problems with his VoIP phone. The system is working as promised, providing fast and reliable phone service throughout the local network and the public system at large.
It seems that VoIP is all good, no gloom. Indeed, the advantages of VoIP are many. However, VoIP does have its drawbacks and they can be a real pain in a tight spot. The phones are useless without an Internet connection. Without a broadband connection, much like NLC’s use of Supernet, VoIP proves to be problematic at best. A power outage will take users back to the Dark Age and problems abound when trying to make a 911 call.
Emergency calls are hard to route because the nature of IP make it geographically difficult to locate the caller. The process is downright impossible on some networks. If the user cannot provide a physical address, emergency services don’t know where to go.
College I/T (information technology) supervisor Curt Cowell says that until such time as VoIP clears that last hurdle, all campuses will maintain a traditional phone service so that emergencies don’t become even more so.
“In every campus, we’re maintaining a local Telus phone line,” Cowell says. “When a 911 call comes, Telus says ‘OK, it’s coming from this location’ and ambulances show up at the right spot. Because Slave Lake and Grouard are our main trunk lines, a (VoIP) 911 call from Wabasca would possibly have ambulances arriving at the Slave Lake campus.”
“There is a service you can purchase. You have to maintain a very detailed record of where that phone is, room, building, etc. That (information) is then electronically passed on to the 911 operators. If you maintain that database, it can work. We just chose the route that seemed least resistant.”

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