Penn may adopt new telephone technology

Imagine sitting in the middle of the Quadrangle and talking to your parents in another state using your computer.

If Penn were to take Dartmouth College's lead by introducing "Voice over Internet Protocol," this vision would become reality.

VoIP is a growing technology that enables students to use computers as their telephones, allowing free unlimited local and long-distance phone calls.

Dartmouth's recent decision to try VoIP has, until now, only affected the incoming freshman class, which includes about 1,000 students. The freshmen have received CDs that give them the option to download the software onto Windows-based computers, said Brad Noblet, the director of Computing Technical Services at Dartmouth.

Overall, Noblet said that thus far, VoIP has been successful "economically and also from the standpoint of customer satisfaction."

The software turns the students' computers into softphones and, with the addition of a headset that plugs into the computer, allows students to make free calls nationwide from anywhere on Dartmouth's entirely wireless campus.

Penn has been conducting a VoIP pilot launch, using a unit in Information Systems and Computing, according to Vice President of Information Systems and Computing Robin Beck, and is looking to introduce the technology campus-wide in the future.

College junior Jorge Cabrera said that he would "definitely" like to use VoIP to make long-distance phone calls because he does not have a cell phone. However, even if he did, Cabrera said that he would use VoIP to make phone calls during the day.

"Penn should look into it," added Cabrera, noting that land line rates are pretty expensive.

An on-campus common line requires a $35 activation fee, $8 monthly fee and an additional 10 cents per minute for state to state and in-state calls.

At Dartmouth, which is one of the first schools to offer the technology to its students, VoIP will eventually be available to everyone on campus as a download and about 2,500 people are expected to use it by the end of this year, Noblet said.

Although VoIP does offer unlimited free long-distance calls, Noblet said that students do in a sense pay for the service when they pay for their housing expenses.

Dartmouth is also conducting research, headed by Noblet and Computer Science Professor David Kotz and sponsored by Cisco Systems, Inc., into how VoIP effects the school's wireless network.

Beck said that she is waiting for the results of this study to establish how VoIP will impact Dartmouth's wireless network before making any decisions about Penn's implementation of the software.

Beck noted that although Penn is behind Dartmouth -- which has had wireless capabilities since 2001 -- the University is becoming increasingly wireless and there are currently about 150 wireless access points.

"The penetration of wireless at Penn has been very focused on putting wireless in areas where students congregate," Beck said.

"Wireless is a fact of life for all of us," Beck added, saying that Penn is "absolutely moving towards wireless networks."

She noted, however, that if and when Penn adopts the VoIP software, the new calling abilities will not replace land lines on campus. This is largely because the technology cannot currently support phone calls to emergency numbers such as 911, which do not accept phone calls from the Internet.

"Until you solve the emergency call [problem], you want to be able to have a land line," Beck said. "Once we solve that issue, I think that wireless is the direction of the future."

Penn students seem excited about the idea of using their computers as telephones and not having to pay for long-distance.

"I think it's a great idea," College freshman Elizabeth Guise said. "I call long-distance almost everyday."

Guise, who is from California, lives in the basement of Ware College House. She said that she does not get sufficient cell phone reception in her room and has to use her room phone to call home.

"I'm sure I've been racking up tons of long-distance minutes," Guise said.

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