Saturday July 4 2009
Information Technology Central Services at the University of Michigan
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Voice-over-IP (VoIP) Services

What's New


Overview

What is Voice over IP (VoIP)?

Voice over IP (VoIP) represents a new method of providing telephone service. Historically, telephone systems have used dedicated equipment to provide telephone service. This equipment includes telephone switches, circuits to connect the switches, telephone sets, and so forth. Rather than using dedicated equipment, VoIP uses much of the same infrastructure as a data network. It does this by converting sound into small packets of data and transporting them via the regular Internet protocol (TCP/IP) between telephone sets.

There are various ways to implement VoIP:

  • Replace circuits (trunks) between telephone switches with VoIP

  • Connect the telephone switch to VoIP long distance services

  • Replace the telephone sets, dedicated telephone lines, and smaller telephone switches with VoIP equipment

What ITCom Offers

ITCom is primarily focusing on option 3. In this scenario, the telephone set actually plugs into the data network "jack" rather than a telephone "jack." At this time, our VoIP infrastructure is propriety technology and we are offering only Cisco VoIP phone sets and software.

What's in the Future

Our goal is to convert the existing infrastructure to standard SIP (session initiation protocol) implementation. SIP is an open standard based protocol as defined by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). SIP enables the richest new peer-to-peer communication applications that integrate voice, video, and instant messaging services and devices from multiple vendors.

Why Use VoIP?


Rates

VoIP Rates—Various service and feature charges.

VoIP Sets—VoIP-related equipment that we currently offer.

For assistance with line and equipment ordering, call ITCom Customer Service at 734-763-2000.


Repairs

For VoIP telephone repairs, call 647-8888 Option 1 or send e-mail to telephonerepairs@umich.edu.


Contact Information

Linda Riley
VoIP Product Leader
ITCom.IPT@umich.edu