VoIP Transition

Moving from analog telephones to Voice over IP (VoIP)

Stanford School of Medicine is moving most of its telephones from analog to VoIP.  We are planning to be completely transitioned by August 31, 2014. 

When will my building transition?

When your building is scheduled for transition, notifications will be distributed via several channels, including email, paper fliers posted in elevators and near restrooms, and appearances by TDS staff at group meetings whenever possible. Please click here to see a proposed deployment schedule.

Preparing for the transition

Before your scheduled transition date, TDS technicians will be in the building preparing and installing the necessary equipment in the telephone closets, and checking the TSOs and jacks in your work area.  We will also be looking for non-TDS network equipment, which can interfere with network service and performance.  Please be assured that if you can communicate your needs for such devices, we will do our best to provide authorized alternatives.

TDS will also be confirming phone lines attached to equipment that cannot be converted to VoIP.  This includes fax machines, alarms, outside or emergency phones, most cordless phones and elevator phones. 

In conference rooms with Polycom phones, you will be able to continue to use the existing Polycom equipment; the line will remain analog.   If a conference room has a phone other than a Polycom, the phone will be replaced with a Cisco VoIP phone.   A small room can use the standard Cisco VoIP phone, which can conference in five additional lines. In a larger conference room (seating more than 10 people), a VoIP conference phone will be installed; these phones are an additional charge of $16 per month.

The transition process

The transition will be scheduled for two days or more, depending on the number of phone lines to be converted.  ITS will provide TDS with their planned schedule, and we will publicize it to building residents, department managers, building managers, DFAs, LNAs, departmental support and other key contacts.  We hope anyone receiving a notification will forward it to others as necessary.

  • The first day ITS technicians are in your area, they will place a new Cisco VoIP phone next to your current phone.  They will boot it up to make sure it works and will leave it in place.  Your analog phone will still work and the VoIP phone will not.  
  • The second day, ITS will perform the cutover from analog to VoIP.  This process is done at the central controller and not locally in your building.  At that point, your analog phone will no longer work.  You will be able to use your new VoIP phone to dial Stanford numbers, but not external numbers.  All incoming calls will go directly to voicemail.  To complete the process, an ITS technician will visit each phone, sign on with its user’s SUNet ID and a generic password, and test the phone.  They will also leave some documentation on how to use the new phone. At that time, your new VoIP phone will be fully operational, and your voicemail set up.

Training and documentation

In addition to the paper documentation left by ITS, you can visit voip.stanford.edu for further information on your new Cisco VoIP telephone, including user guides and Stanford-specific information.

ITS will also schedule training sessions, probably within a day or two of your new phone being installed.  TDS will send out notifications of training via several channels as we receive schedule confirmation from ITS trainers.

Headsets

If you currently use a headset, it may or may not work with your new Cisco phone. If it does not, ITS has some information about headsets here: https://itservices.stanford.edu/service/phone/headsets

Going forward:  Support and new service requests

If there is a problem with a phone during the transition process, ITS will be on hand to troubleshoot and fix the problem.  For problems that occur after your building's transition is complete, please submit a HelpSU ticket at helpsu.stanford.edu, or call the Help Line at 5-HELP.