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Telecom upgrades boast new caller ID, call waiting
By Whitaker Grannis
Contributing Reporter

While construction crews paved the Quad and increased accessibility around campus, Information Systems was busy replacing equipment to give students new and advanced telecommunication services.

According to Tommy Jackson, director of telecommunication, crews replaced the equipment that runs the campus telephone system and upgraded the campus cable network.

The new telephone switch will now allow campus phones to utilize caller ID and call waiting.

Any phone with caller ID capability can now receive the incoming call with the phone number and location, if available, appearing on the display. Students can also purchase a caller ID box for about $10 to upgrade any phone without caller ID. On-campus calls will now display the extension and room number of the caller, but not the individual student’s name.

For new students, the new services come as great advantages as they acclimate themselves to the already-wired campus. "Caller ID is great to have in the dorm so you know when your buddies call you from across campus," freshman Steve Manna said.

Calls originating off-campus will only provide the calling number and no name because BellSouth, who provides telephone service to the Reynolda campus, has not upgraded their equipment.

These calls will be listed as "out of area." BellSouth has not yet committed to upgrading their equipment, so students will not be able to see off-campus names. Sophomore David Harding is looking forward to caller ID. "Last year I had to put up with a lot of prank calls," he said. "This year I hope caller ID will stop that."

Call waiting can be used with any telephone. A beep will signify an incoming call and the student simply presses "flash" button on their telephone to switch between the two conversations.

This summer IS worked on the final phase of upgrading the campus cable distribution system. This multi-year project is almost complete and will wrap up in September. The campus cable system demanded improvement for several reasons. The system received TV channels from multiple locations across campus.

Time Warner Cable’s signal arrived in two separate locations, two satellite channels were received at IS, and Carswell Hall provided another satellite channel and WAKE TV’s channel. These signals were then sent via coaxial cable to each room.

With the new distribution system all of these sources are gathered in one location in IS. All of these signals are broadcast together by one fiber optic cable that carries the signal to each building.

Each building then individually modulates the TV signal and sends it to each dorm outlet. Beyond making the system simpler to maintain, this provides several technical advantages.

Previously higher numbered channels were not very clear and sometimes completely disappeared. With this new system there should be clarity among all channels.