Although nearly three-quarters of higher education institutions are interested in Voice over Internet Protocol, most have yet to implement VoIP and those who have are mainly using it in small environments, according to a survey by the Association for Communications Technology Professionals in Higher Education.

Of the nearly 300 institutions that responded to the ACUTA survey, 43 percent have implemented some form of VoIP. For those that already have it, their VoIP networks cover less than 25 percent of the campus. But 77 percent of the institutions using VoIP say they plan to expand their networks during the next two years — the others have already upgraded their VoIP networks.

When asked which beneficial applications the IP networks would enable, 85 percent say they plan to use desktop video and videoconferencing, 83 percent would implement emergency notifications, and 79 percent expect to try audioconferencing.

Among the institutions not using VoIP, 70 percent say they are planning to migrate to it. What’s holding them back? The majority, 77 percent, listed security as a concern; 69 percent raised quality of service and emergency 911 issues; and 62 percent expressed apprehension about managing the technology.

Source: ACUTA survey of higher education institutions, 2007

Contributors

Ryan Elstad is a system administrator at the Whitman Management School at Syracuse University. He has eight years’ experience in information technology in higher ed. In his current position, Elstad is responsible for helping design, deploy and manage the IT infrastructure with a focus on customer service, servers and operating systems at the Whitman School, which specializes in leadership at the intersection of business and technology.

Brian W. Markham is an IT compliance specialist at the University of Maryland, where he supports compliance efforts in regards to audit, best practice, and state and university standards. He previously worked for KPMG and Grant Thornton in information systems audit and assurance capacities. Markham holds a certified information systems auditor (CISA) certification and will start in the part-time MBA program at the University of Maryland in the fall of 2007.