Imagine a world where your voicemail would be sent to your e-mail, you had the capability of moving your phone from room to room while keeping the same number, could check the weather and add money to Jaybucks through your phone – a phone that has the possibilities to do everything a computer can.

And it isn’t a cell phone.

This is Cisco IPT, Creighton’s wave of the future. Creighton’s new phone system, already installed in several buildings around campus, starting in Opus Hall in 2005 and then expanding into the Harper Center and Wareham Building along with a few others, will one day replace every phone on campus. This program is through the Division of Information Technology.

Internet Protocol Telephony is the agreed upon standard in which computers communicate. IPT, designed during the Cold War, was made reliable enough to withstand a nuclear attack, said Mike Donner, senior DoIT project manager.

The Cisco IPT phones are not connected through a separate system but through the same exact network as computers. This new network will converge the telephone network and the data network into one.

This change is necessary, said Ken Mattson, director of network and data for DoIT.

“Part of the emphasis is replacing old technology that is getting harder and harder to support. The way the industry is going, it doesn’t leave you much choice because it won’t be manufactured in the future.”

Mattson said IPT is the way to move forward. The benefit of bringing the phone and computer networks together is to make service and support easier for DoIT technicians.

Currently, DoIT has to use outside contractors to service the phone system, but soon DoIT will be able to service all the phones themselves.

Donner said only one system will have to be maintained, which will save time and money.

“If we take all those resources and invest them in the converged network, we can build one network that is reliable, robust and redundant,” he said.

Instead of having to talk through problems over the phone or having someone come in person, DoIT technicians will be able to connect to phones electronically and see what is wrong. They will be able to see why something isn’t working right from their help desks.

The new phones are essentially a “mini-computer,” Donner said. Not only is the entire Creighton directory built into the phone, but the phones also keep detailed call logs and can be used for video conferencing.

“The sky is the limit to what these phones can do,” Donner said.

Installing the new phones will also be cheaper in the long run – cheaper to install and more efficient, Donner said. The new phones can be moved from place to place as long as the building is IPT-ready, and it will be as if it never left its original location.

DoIT will install new phones based on factors such as the state of a building’s network, and future remodeling.

With more than 5,000 telephone lines on campus, getting into offices to set up the system is a problem, along with the cost. It is easier to set up the system in an up-and-coming building than in an existing building, Mattson said.

Buildings that are being constructed are easier because the new phone system can be budgeted into the cost.

Mattson said the phones do have many “whiz-bang” features that are state of the art. He also said DoIT’s main goal is to first get the phones installed and working like a phone should, and then worrying about all the other “cool” features.

“We want to get it to as many people before we worry about all the whiz-bang. After all, it is just a phone and it needs to work.”

The cost of the new phones is undetermined right now, Donner said.

“We have to evaluate the building’s infrastructure to see if it can support IPT,” he said. “If it can, then we need only equipment and a project plan. If it cannot, we need to replace the technology infrastructure, then obtain the equipment and plan the implementation.”