In 2000, Boise State transitioned our campus phone system to Cisco VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), becoming one of the first universities in the county to move to today’s standard for enterprise telephone systems.
25 years later, it’s time to move to a new system that reflects how the world uses phones today.
Introducing Zoom Phone
Starting this fall and continuing through spring 2025, Boise State will transition to Zoom Phone. replacing existing systems with a more seamless, reliable, and AI-powered communication tool.
Enhanced features and benefits
Zoom Phone brings a host of innovative features designed to streamline communication and increase efficiency:
- Enhanced Self-Service: Faculty and staff can manage independently manage phone settings.
- Softphone Capabilities with SMS: The Zoom client allows faculty and staff to use SMS text messaging, reducing the need to use personal cell numbers for professional communications.
- Unlimited Storage: No cap on storage limits for voice calls and meeting recordings.
- Call summaries: Zoom’s AI Companion feature will produce a post-call summary upon request, allowing more effective use of your time.
Future integrations
Post-transition, the university plans further integrations with educational platforms like Canvas, which will enable mass SMS communications from professors to students.
Number porting
Boise State currently owns 12,000 phone numbers starting with “426” and “447,” but only uses 3,300 of those numbers.
The Zoom Phone transition project will reduce our allocated number blocks to about 6,650 total numbers.
While 99% of faculty and staff will retain their current numbers, a small number of numbers will change. We will reach out directly to individuals impacted by this upcoming change.
Demonstrations coming later this year
Hands-on demonstrations will be available later this summer in the Zone in the ILC (Room 128) to provide an option for faculty and staff to try out Zoom Phone software and explore the new desktop handset models (while the number of physical desk phones on campus is expected to decrease, handsets will still be available as an option where softphones are not sufficient.)
OIT is committed to making the transition as smooth as possible and looks forward to delivering a modern, feature-rich, unified communication solution to our campus community.
For questions or additional information, contact the Help Desk at (208) 426-4357 or email helpdesk@boisestate.edu.