Thanks for Taking Our Calls: SMU’s Former PBX Leaves The Hilltop

More banks of interface cards in the legacy PBX.
Additional interface cards.

A few years ago, we made the switch to our new telephone system on campus. While individuals on campus moved to the new system a while back, that wasn’t the end of the project! Our legacy Private Branch Exchange (PBX) was still in a state of limited operation while the remaining legacy phone lines (like fire alarms, fax lines, Blue Light safety phones, etc.) were moved to their own more modern equivalents.

That stage of the phone replacement project recently ended, as the final power connections to our Intecom PBX system were completely removed and preparations began for the system to be moved out of the data center in Patterson Hall. We stopped by Patterson Hall to take one last look at the equipment that handled SMU’s phone calls for nearly thirty years. Continue reading Thanks for Taking Our Calls: SMU’s Former PBX Leaves The Hilltop

New Federal Regulations to Affect Telephone Placement

AAudioCodes 445HD TelephoneTo maintain FCC compliance and University employee safety, the Office of Information Technology (OIT), in conjunction with the Office of Risk Management and the SMU Police Department, is developing a roadmap for the removal of all non-compliant telephone devices.

Under Kari’s Law, for a phone to comply, it must have the capability to dial 9-1-1 directly. Similar to a computer, users must sign in to the AudioCodes phone for them to operate. If the user has not signed in to their phone, no calls can be made, including calls to 9-1-1. The Ray Baum act ensures protection for our campus by requiring all phones have a “dispatchable location” when you call 9-1-1. Phones that are not logged in prevent users from calling, and phones that are not signed in after a password has changed will not provide a 9-1-1 dispatcher with the location information for that phone. Continue reading New Federal Regulations to Affect Telephone Placement

Phone System Enhancements Fight Spam Calls

No Spoofed Phone CallsWe all bristle at those annoying spam calls that we receive not only on our personal cell phones but our office telephones as well. Both our old and new telephone systems have experienced this irritating problem, and a new solution will help reduce the amount of these calls we receive. Continue reading Phone System Enhancements Fight Spam Calls