[41012] in Resnet-Forum
Re: Phones in the residence halls
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Frank Sweetser)
Tue Feb 9 22:23:06 2016
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Message-ID: <56BAAD07.3050707@wpi.edu>
Date: Tue, 9 Feb 2016 22:22:47 -0500
Reply-To: Resnet Forum <RESNET-L@LISTSERV.ND.EDU>
From: Frank Sweetser <fs@WPI.EDU>
To: RESNET-L@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
In-Reply-To: <CAMUtijzUH1YJyAv0PXpGqzJDMofksGbPFY3xcPSB5eZ3Vzk=jw@mail.gmail.com>
I'm getting a permission denied error from that survey, but I'm happy to share
here in email =)
We re-evaluated our residential phone situation three years ago, as a result
of planning a high density wireless refresh. Our telecom guys looked at
utilization stats, and found them to be only a few percent - and almost all of
that was our residential advisers who are required to have a phone as part of
their job. In the end, we decided that students would rather have WiFi than
dial tone, and re-purposed the phone lines as in-room APs.
In the end, it's worked out quite well. We haven't received a single
complaint about lack of POTS lines, and people are a lot happier with the
wireless. We have since put up a new "higher end" dorm (apartment style
housing) with no analog lines at all. (Anecdotally, for many years now we've
had a lot more people asking why that last ethernet port doesn't work, than
we've had people asking what their phone number is.)
There were a few key points that helped it go smoothly for us:
- We gave Residential Services plenty of heads up, so they'd be prepared to
handle questions from parents.
- We already had a strong IP phone deployment in place.
- Residential Advisers who had to have land line phones were issued basic
model IP phones. We did this because a good portion of the students that did
have land lines only did so because they were forced to by their parents.
- We were prepared to offer students IP phones at a nominal rental fee, but
we've had zero requests. They're all happy to just stick with their cell phones.
- No buildings were split configuration - once we started in on a building,
we ensured that all in-room analog lines were taken out of service.
- Out of service jacks were removed or stuffed into the electrical box, and
replaced with a blank plate. We wanted to make sure we didn't leave behind
any jack locations that no longer had service available.
- We made sure that there were wall mounted phones available on every
residential floor (either POTS or IP depending on what was easier) to account
for the few students without cell phones, and for emergency calls.
Obviously the final decision will depend on other factors, like the usage
patterns of your own student population and quality of cell services, but
given cell phone population and the cost of copper I'd highly recommend
seriously looking at ditching the analog lines.
Frank Sweetser fs at wpi.edu | For every problem, there is a solution that
Manager of Network Operations | is simple, elegant, and wrong.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute | - HL Mencken
On 2/9/2016 9:52 PM, Henry Joseph wrote:
> Hello RESNET,
>
> I am reaching out to you all today not for technical assistance, but just
> information on what progress has been made with traditional phone service in
> your residence halls. Does your University still provide phone service and
> would you add it to new buildings going forward? Please take a few seconds
> and reply using the survey link below. I can share the final list with anyone
> who might benefit from this information.
>
> Phones in the residence halls survey(3 questions)
> https://docs.google.com/a/stonybrook.edu/forms/d/1_cLK7ILpP2_NRMs4sVtRkEfCR3rZTNjVJGhjMDMaVQk/viewform
>
> The reason I am asking this is that Stony Brook University is building a
> new residence hall today and we're curious to see if we really need to place
> phones in all the rooms.
>
> Thank you,
> *Henry Joseph <mailto:henry.joseph@stonybrook.edu> | Stony Brook University*
> Assistant Director | U.I.S.- Campus Residences
> Division of Information Technology
>
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