SIPphone Adds Free Calling Worldwide to UCSD's Phone System
SAN DIEGO, CA - September 5, 2004
Network Interconnection Partnership Brings the Great Advantages of VoIP to UCSD's 20,000 Phones
The University of California at San Diego (UCSD) and VoIP startup SIPphone, Inc. today announce they have interconnected their telephone networks. SIPphone was started by Michael Robertson, UCSD alumni and founder of MP3.com and Linspire, Inc.
By interconnecting the telephone networks, UCSD and SIPphone have enabled the following:
- UCSD's 10,000 phones can now directly dial any of the thousands SIPphone users in over 100 countries around the world, free of charge
- SIPphone users can directly dial any UCSD phone at no cost using either their regular phone connected to a standards-based SIP adapter or with one of SIPphone's free softphones that run on any Windows, Mac or Linux based computer
- UCSD's staff, students and professors can take advantage of SIPphone's free, on-the-fly conference calling system, voicemail to email and other advanced VoIP features
"Just as universities were the birth place of the internet, they're leading the charge with internet calling," says SIPphone CEO and founder Michael Robertson. "UC San Diego's phone system is now modernized to make free calls with the VoIP world using SIP technology," adds Robertson.
"UCSD is always looking for ways to improve the services we provide our faculty, staff and student body," says Dr. Elazar Harel, assistant vice chancellor of administrative computing and telecommunications for UCSD. "By interconnecting with SIPphone's free SIP network, no matter where our students and faculty travel in the world, they will still be connected to our local phone network. This project is still in an experimental mode -- we expect to learn a lot and expand features over time."
International students will enjoy a connection to family and friends previously unavailable. For example, a student from India can talk to her family for free as long as she wants. Professors teaching abroad can keep their UCSD phone number, even if they are working in China, Europe or the Middle East.
"My family in New Delhi can't believe it," says Puneet Sharma, a graduate researcher in UCSD's electrical and computer engineering department. "Calls between India and the US are normally prohibitively expensive, which means we have only been able to call sporadically and in rushed calls. Now my family can call me every day if they like just using a $60 phone adapter and their broadband connection. It is cheaper for my mom to call me than it is for her to call my brother who lives in India. That's crazy, right?"
In addition to extending the UCSD phone network around the globe, the interconnection immediately boosts the features UCSD can offer its 10,000 phone network users. By interconnecting with SIPphone's network a professor can now add a "Virtual SIP Number" from most major cities in the United States or even the UK that allows them to have a "local" number in cities like New York, Miami or Chicago.
