From left, Bob Little, LHU's vice president for finance, administration and technology, Don Patterson, director of computing and instructional technology, and Bo Miller, telecommunications manager, address colleagues at the annual EDUCAUSE conference in Seattle, Wash. in October.

LOCK HAVEN, Pa. - Except for emergency phones, there are no phone lines at the Lock Haven University campus anymore. With that in mind, phone service at LHU is the best that it has ever been. That’s because the university has switched to Voice over Internet Protocol, also known as VoIP, where phone service is added to the university’s data network.

There are many advantages, according to Bo Miller, telecommunications manager for LHU. Perhaps the most notable is in cost savings, as Miller estimates savings at around $20,000 a month, projected at $1.2 million over the next five years.

“This comes from literally comparing our old bills with our new ones,” Miller said.

Savings are seen in the fact that the university now can install and maintain the phones in-house, instead of outsourcing phone service which can become costly as offices move and as the university grows. With the VoIP phones, instead of having to shift phone lines and numbers when an office moves to another location, the phone unit itself retains the phone number, and service is available as soon as the phone is plugged into a networked broadband cable.

Another advantage is the availability of technical features that are best provided over Internet broadband, he said.

“The features are great,” Miller said. “One feature we have is unified messaging, where a voicemail actually can show up in your Microsoft Outlook inbox. The phones have conferencing capabilities and we’ve added call centers for Admissions and Student Financial Services. Many university callers have added an inexpensive camera which allows video calls.”

Installation of the phones was completed in January 2007, as Miller and Rich Heimer, telecommunications coordinator, had finished converting over 700 phones and fax adapters to VoIP in just five months.

Lock Haven University is the only campus in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education to switch entirely to VoIP, Miller said. The project has gained national attention, and in October, it was the subject of a presentation at EDUCAUSE, a nonprofit organization that hosts a national conference with the mission to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology.

Miller joined Robert Little, LHU’s vice president for finance, administration and technology, and Don Patterson, LHU’s director of computing and instructional technology, at the conference in Seattle, Wash.

“It was great to speak to a room full of technology professionals who were extremely interested in what we have accomplished at Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania,” Little said.