Global University Phone System (GUPS) to Interconnect University Phones Worldwide; Initiative to Enable Free Calling to and Between Academic Institutions Around the World Using VOIP.

SAN DIEGO -- To encourage the free flow of information between academic establishments worldwide, the Robertson Education Empowerment Foundation (REEF) announces the launch of an initiative that will link University phone systems to enable calling to and between colleges. The initiative entitled Global University Phone System (GUPS) provides Linux software and hardware to link traditional phone networks via the internet to enable free calling between Universities and any internet connected PC (a visual representation may be seen at http://aboutreef.org/gups).

"With GUPS, universities can experience substantial cost savings by making calls to other universities over the internet connections they are already paying for, which reduces their telecom bills," says REEF director Tina Donaldson. "Equally as important as cost savings is the removal of barriers to encourage the free flow of knowledge from any PC in the world to university campus phones and vice versa free of charge."

The GUPS Initiative provides universities with a VOIP (voice over IP) system they can easily install and configure to connect their phone networks with other academic institutions around the globe. Calls then travel over the internet using VOIP thus bypassing traditional telecommunication charges for phone calls and connecting universities to the rapidly expanding VOIP community.

Beta testing institutions from around the world, led by UC San Diego, UC Santa Cruz, UC Irvine, University of Oklahoma, University of Philippines and Brigham Young University have been successfully routing calls. During the test period, thousands of calls were successfully completed between universities and PCs seamlessly. "We have routed more than 10,000 minutes since June. The implementation of this system was easy and the call quality was great. We are investigating expanding VOIP offerings to the campus community," says Elazar Harel, Assistant Vice Chancellor of Administrative Computing and Telecommunications at UCSD, who led the university's activities on this project.

All calls through GUPS adhere to the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) approved SIP standard. The SIP protocol is an open standard, so calls can be made not just between participating campuses, but also between any software or hardware telephony device that supports SIP. Universities are able to distribute free VOIP software to students and affiliates such as Gizmo Project (see: http://gizmoproject.com) or to deploy SIP based digital phone devices such as wifi phones (see: http://siphardware.com), all of which can make free calls to campus numbers.

GUPS participants are supplied with necessary software and hardware to connect their existing phone system at no cost from REEF. A secure Linux based PC is provided along with Asterisk software, a multi-protocol open source PBX (see: asterisk.org). Free technical support and monitoring is provided by SIPphone (see: sipphone.com).

The GUPS Initiative is now open to institutions throughout the world. All universities are invited to fill out an application at: http://aboutreef.org/gups. REEF will be supplying preconfigured hardware and software to universities that qualify. To qualify, you must be a fully accredited academic institution with a dedicated prefix within an area code for your university campus. For further information on GUPS, please contact Tina M. Donaldson at 858-784-0165 or [e-mail].