ITS Home > Employee Pages > Telephone FAQs > New Telephone System In October of 2007 IT Services implemented phase 1 of the new Avaya telephone System for the College. This phase included the replacement of the Meridian telephone switch at the Prince George 3330 22nd St. campus with Avaya digital telephony switching equipment, replacement of a number of edge switches and replacement of a number of telephones to a VoIP model. The reason for this upgrade was as a result that the Meridian telephone switch was out of capacity and is now obsolete. By 2008 CNC would not be able to get support service for this device.

During our evaluation of new telephony equipment we determined that we had two options. The first option was to convert to new digital technology called Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP – also referred to as IP Telephony). The second option was to install a newer version of the Nortel telephone switch that would eventually be migrated to VoIP technology. One of the primary considerations, besides the inevitability of VoIP, to make the decision to convert to VoIP at this time is that our current data network infrastructure is Avaya based. This ensures a smooth integration of these two technologies.

In our current data network we have over 200 switches distributed throughout the campus. In order to convert to the VoIP style telephone for all users we will have to convert all of these switches to a newer higher capacity model. This process was started with approximately 15 switches being converted. This task is expensive and resource intensive. Over the next year or so our plan is to convert all of the switches thus replacing all of the over 600 telephones with the new model VoIP units. Budget and resource availability will factor into the time frame for this expansion.

Under the old infrastructure we have many styles of telephone. Within these many styles there are actually 2 types of telephony. These are analog and digital telephones. Analog telephones work with the new telephone infrastructure while digital telephones do not. This is the reason there were a select number of users that had their telephones converted to the new VoIP model. All of the users who had digital telephones on their desk needed to have their telephone replaced. This is also why we had to convert as many switches as we did prior to implementation.

With new technology comes change. When has a new version of any piece of software not created change? When has anyone purchased a new television or DVD/VCR and not had to figure out all of the differences from the old one in order to get the same results? When has this process not been frustrating?

This is the same with our new telephone system. Certain functions that were inherent in the old system are still in the new system yet performing them is not the same. Different keys need to be used. An example is fast deleting a message. In the old system we hit 337 and the message was deleted. In the new system we need to key 3379 to delete the message.

Why did we change the locals to 4 digits? This was necessary as we were running out of locals for expansion. We need to expand our emergency telephone network requiring many more locals than we have available at present. The new system will be integrated with the Regions over the next couple of years. In order to have consistency four digit locals were a necessity. In Prince George all locals now commence with a 5xxx. When we convert the Region campus locations each will have a unique starting digit using the four digit local (i.e. 4xxx or 7xxx etc.).

Some functions that were in the old system do not exist in the new system. The most obvious function is the message pending flashing light on a number of the telephone models that are in service. These are analog telephones. This function does not work with the new system. As an alternate, the dial tone will stutter thus indicating that a message is pending. All telephones that are upgraded to the VoIP model will have the light indicating a message pending.

The new system brings with it many new functions. During phase 1 we tried to make the impact as minimal as possible by emulating the old system as closely as we could. During subsequent phases of expansion and conversion we will be introducing many new features. E-mail message integration and cell phone integration will be among those being introduced.

We hope that everyone will enjoy the expanded functionality of the new telephone system. We appreciate your patience during this extended period of expansion. If you need assistance please call the help desk at local 5812.