Alcatel Enables All-IP Voice Network for Jackson State University With Award-Winning Alcatel OmniPCX 4400

Business Wire, August 27, 2001

Business Editors and High Tech Writers

CALABASAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 27, 2001

Campus Deploys VoIP After Evaluating Alcatel Voice/Data

Convergence Starter Kit

Alcatel (NYSE:ALA) announced that Jackson State University (JSU) has chosen the Alcatel OmniPCX 4400 for its voice network.

The Alcatel OmniPCX 4400 will provide voice-over-IP (VoIP) services to the 1,200 faculty staff and 2,500 students on JSU's main campus and in three remote sites across Jackson, Miss.

With a growing student and faculty population, JSU chose to consolidate its voice and data networks to take advantage of applications it could deploy with an all-IP voice system and to better manage service and support issues with its limited IT staff.

Three years ago, JSU started looking for an interface with Centrex to transition to a new phone system. After hearing about the Alcatel OmniPCX 4400, a group of 10 key decision-makers and technicians at JSU decided to evaluate it in a working environment using Alcatel's IP Telephony Starter Kit. The system was installed and operational within a day and was evaluated onsite for one month.

"JSU wanted an IP-based system without sacrificing advanced telephony features and system reliability. Alcatel with its extensive voice experience provided JSU the ideal solution in the Alcatel OmniPCX 4400," said Tom Wilburn, senior vice president, Alcatel North American Enterprise Business.

The VoIP network at JSU running on the Alcatel OmniPCX 4400 is currently being deployed one building at a time. When the installation is complete, there will be a total of 3,700 Alcatel IP phones on the campus. JSU faculty, staff and students living in the dormitories will be able to enjoy familiar telephone features such as call pick-up, call forwarding, call-waiting, caller-ID and access voicemail on the Alcatel OmniPCX 4400.

JSU will eventually phase out the existing Centrex service. It costs JSU $90,000 a month for subscribing to an average of 4,000 lines with basic services. Besides the high monthly fees, JSU felt that it was time-consuming to go through the Centrex service provider for simple management requests such as moves, adds and changes (MAC).

"By deploying the Alcatel OmniPCX 4400, IT managers can easily manage the voice traffic on a converged network and even administer MAC for remote sites," said Dr. Willie Brown, vice president for information technology, Jackson State University.

This project is one of the first major VoIP deployments for Business Communications Inc. (BCI), an established Value-Added Reseller in Mississippi and a recent addition to Alcatel's Business Partner program.

"Although JSU was our first time installing the Alcatel OmniPCX 4400, after our engineers completed Alcatel's training classes, the whole operation went smoothly, without a hitch," said Tony Bailey, chief executive oficer of BCI. "It is no surprise that the Alcatel OmniPCX 4400 works as advertised, offering excellent voice quality and management features that JSU expects in a convergence solution."

Alcatel OmniPCX 4400

The Alcatel OmniPCX 4400 is the world's most advanced IP-based voice communications system. Based on a client/server UNIX architecture, the Alcatel OmniPCX 4400 includes scalability from 50 to 50,000 users, innovative Reflexes telephone handsets, 99.999 percent reliability, one-number mobility, unified messaging, voice-over IP networking with quality of service management, and comprehensive network management.

Alcatel's Convergence Starter Kit

The Alcatel Convergence Starter Kit is a unique solution that provides medium to large enterprises the ability to trial convergence with options of in-building wireless capabilities for mobile workers and soft-phone functionality for remote workers. For sales inquiries, please call 800/995-2612.

About Jackson State University

Jackson State University is the fourth-largest institution of higher learning in Mississippi and one of the largest Historically Black Colleges or Universities in the nation. For more information, visit http://www.jsums.edu

About Alcatel

Alcatel builds next-generation networks, delivering integrated end-to-end voice and data networking solutions to established and new carriers, as well as enterprises and consumers worldwide. With sales of $29 billion (EURO 31 billion) in 2000 and 110,000 employees, Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries. For more information, visit Alcatel on the Internet: http://www.alcatel.com