Landline telephones at EPFL - on the move!

EPFL’s entire telephone network will have to be replaced, as the current technology, which is progressively being phased out, will reach its limits by next year and will no longer benefit from support as of 2018. Rather than waiting for the old technology to expire, EPFL launched an extensive internal survey to gather information about the end users communications needs. The outcome of the survey helped select a solution that reduces maintenance costs while offering a broad range of services. The DIT is deploying a new telephone system based on Voice over IP (your computer and your telephone will both communicate through the IT network). This new system will be able to handle the challenges that await EPFL, such as the expansion of the campus with the new, freshly inaugurated BI building, the IMT, and EPFL Valais.

To those that are already feeling nostalgic about the good old telephone set: the new telephone looks and behaves just like… a telephone, aside for the fact that the it offers a broad range of functions. Welcome to the era of unified communications! When the time comes, the DIT will help you familiarize yourself with your new equipment by letting you know when your telephone will be replaced and what courses will be offered to get you started. Your IT support team and the DIT help desk will provide technical assistance, or you can seek help on this new website: uc.epfl.ch. For now, please be patient. Replacing all of the telephones will take several years. But for those that can’t wait to get their hands on this new technology, we would be happy to help you set up a softphone – a software solution that lets you make calls straight from your computer.

The new system will be directly connected to the telephone directory, and you will be able to chat with your colleagues using the Cisco Jabber softphone. This technology will offer you more flexible communications by letting you choose, for example, to give up your physical telephone and handle all of your communications through your computer. Thanks to a unique phone number, you will be able to answer calls on your desk phone or your EPFL mobile phone. And when you are out of the office, you will be delivered voice messages by email. If during a conversation (audio, video, chat), a colleague complains that he cannot find an important link on your website, you will be able to share a screen with him and guide him through your explanations visually in real time. And this is just scratching the surface of the many applications that this new infrastructure will provide. Unified communications will not merely help you call your colleagues, they should take collaborative work across campus to a whole new level.