The Internet is changing the conventional thinking about telephone service for some Central Florida businesses, government agencies and academic institutions.
It’s not only cheaper to chat via the Web. The whole notion of what a phone call means is shifting with the growing use of a new technology called VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol.
Users can conduct virtual videoconferences and attach documents to voice messages with Web-based phone calls. New phones made for the Web can also call up a directory on a screen at the touch of a button.
“It could probably order my food for me if I wanted it to,” said Diane Trees, assistant vice president for community relations at the University of Central Florida, which has deployed Web-based calling at six sites.
VoIP, which uses the Web to replace conventional local and long-distance calls transmitted over copper wire, has been around for several years. But recently it has begun to gain traction among businesses as the service gets more dependable.
Locally, the list of customers using or considering VoIP includes Bright House Networks, Lockheed Martin, Electronic Arts, the cities of Orlando and Winter Park, and UCF.
Other Central Florida companies investing in the new technology are Channel Intelligence and Next Galaxy Media.
“We will see mass adoption in commercial and residential use over the next five to seven years,” predicted Bill Gilliam, vice president for broadband Internet services at Bright House, which has about 1,000 staff using the technology in its call center and customer-care department.
The company, which sells VoIP service to its cable-TV and residential Internet customers, is saving up to 80 percent on the cost of its long-distance calls, Gilliam said.
However, the new technology isn’t perfect by any means, other commercial users said.
Voice quality suffers at times compared with conventional, wired calls. And if the power goes out, the phone service may go with it, unless a company has a backup power source.
“The technology is still in the process of maturing,” said Alan Fulmer, executive vice president of Channel Intelligence, which has two employees using VoIP from remote locations. “There are also issues from time to time with connections and voice quality.”
The power issue can be a problem, said John Matelski, chief information officer for the city of Orlando.
“There is no separate power supply for Internet service,” he said. “If the power goes out, so does VoIP if the service provider does not offer backup power. This can be a major issue for those who need to use their telephone if the power goes.”
Despite such glitches, VoIP is winning over a variety of commercial users.
Lockheed Martin has deployed the technology to about 14,000 phone users nationwide, though none yet in Orlando, said John Chenoweth, senior product area manager.
“We are looking at it here, but it’s probably a few years off,” he said. “We are committed to it, but we only deploy it where it makes business sense. Older systems can last 10 to 20 years.”
At Electronic Arts’ Tiburon studio in Maitland, the switch to VoIP took place seamlessly several years ago, said John Rotolo, former facilities manager at Tiburon and now network and facilities manager for UCF’s Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy.
“It only took a weekend to get the system up and running,” Rotolo said. “I think any small to mid-size business considering an upgrade in phone service would be foolish not to get VoIP. I really don’t see any negatives with it.”
Local governments are also making the transition to VoIP.
Orlando, which is in the process of selecting a vendor for VoIP service, has budgeted $1.7 million to install a new VoIP system that would save at least $105,000 annually on phone service, Matelski said.
In addition, there are savings in what he called “soft” costs, which are harder to measure. For example, the enhanced, more robust network needed for VoIP will improve the city’s disaster mitigation and business continuity, he said.
As for the potential for problems during power outages, Matelski said the city will “identify specific phones and locations in the network with the highest need for emergency power backup” and provide for it.
In Winter Park, a new VoIP system was installed this year at a cost of about $300,000, said Michael Dunn, the city’s manager of information technology. The old phone system was about 10 years old and due to be replaced.
Along with phone calls, the new system can also provide video conferencing over the Internet, Dunn said.
“I’m thrilled with the system,” said Chip Weston, Winter Park’s director of economic and cultural development. “I like the ability to forward a phone call, like you would with an e-mail. It’s so efficient.”
Another prominent adopter is UCF, which has switched to VoIP at six facilities, including its downtown Orlando campus, the Rosen College of Hospitality Management, and Engineering III, said Joel Hartman, vice provost for information technologies and resources.
“It’s the inevitable next thing in telephony,” he said.
There’s a learning curve for VoIP, but it’s worth the effort, said UCF’s Trees, who is keeping a conventional phone on her desk until she feels more at home with the new technology.
“I have mastered a few options, and found I can actually carry the phone to another location in the building, plug it in and it will recognize calls from my line,” she said.
