New phone technology provides flexibility to UB

Person on phone.

By Dan Hartman

Published March 23, 2016 This content is archived.

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Dan Hartman.

Dan Hartman (UB Student, Class of 2016) was born in Rochester, NY. He transferred to UB after earning an Associate’s Degree at Monroe Community College and is working towards completing his Bachelor’s in Communication. Dan hopes to become a screenwriter someday. In his free time, he enjoys working out, eating cereal, and spending time with his friends.

UBIT is converting the current UB phone technology used for off-campus communication. This conversion will modernize the phone system and improve reliability for faculty and staff.  

During Spring 2016, UB will change to a different phone service provider and use SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) for access to this provider. SIP is a flexible service that will allow UB to better manage business continuity and disaster recovery.

And there’s even better news for the campus: faculty and staff shouldn’t notice any difference to the way their phone currently operates.

So is there are no visible changes, how is this phone technology different? According to UBIT staff we spoke with, it's "similar to going to the Verizon Wireless store to cancel service, then moving over to AT&T; typically seamless." In the case of UB, the service provider for incoming and outgoing off-campus calls will change from Verizon to Windstream.

During Spring 2016, UBIT will migrate a small group of UB staff to test the quality of this change. Telephone numbers will be migrated in batches to reduce the potential for disruption.

Network and Classroom Services Director Mark Deuell says that a careful implementation will ensure the conversion process occurs flawlessly. "We’re minimizing the potential for disruption by managing the project in phases," he said. "The speed at which we transition all UB phones to SIP will depend on how confident we are with the process."

No action is required in order to prepare for the transition to SIP. During the migration process, faculty and staff may see an overnight missed call from 645-0079 on their phone. The missed call should be disregarded.                       

Before each migration, UBIT Alerts will be issued that display the phone number ranges moving over to the new service provider.

Faculty and staff should contact the UBIT Help Center at 716-645-3542 or www.buffalo.edu/ubit/help if any problems are noticed after SIP migrations.