House eyes move to VoIP phone system

The House of Representatives wants to migrate its separate voice and data communications systems to a single unified communications system, which in the end also could support voice and videoconferencing and instant messaging on an integrated Internet protocol network.

This network must support offices and meeting rooms in the U.S. Capitol as then as at 850 congressional district offices in all 50 states and territories, the House Office of the Chief Administrative Officer said in a request for information Aug. 8.

The first phase of the migration plan

The first phase of the migration plan would involve replacing the current voice communications system with a Voice over Internet Protocol-based system. The House said it plans to use responses to the RFI, due Aug. 31, to gather information about currently available VoIP systems and to assess whether migration from its current system to this is warranted at this time.

The House as well wants industry input on the pros and cons of integrating its separate data networks. Verizon Federal currently provides voice -- local and long distance services -- to the House, as so then as Internet services.

The move to VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)

Officials emphasized that cost will determine the move to VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). "Critical to the House's decision on whether to replace their current voice communications system with a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) system and . . . UC applications is the House's ability to justify the expense," the RFI said.

Warren Suss, president of Suss Consulting, said Congress can save money by operating one integrated voice/data/video system instead of multiple systems. He said the House could anyway save money by piggybacking on the General Service Administration's Networx contract, which offers VoIP services.

But, he added, the separation of powers clause of the Constitution means the House in the past has built its own networks separate from executive agency networks, and Suss expects this policy to continue.

The RFI envisions a wide area backbone for the VoIP network to serve district offices, which means it will have to span a distance of 7,500 miles from offices in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, to Pago Pago in American Samoa, and officials want to know how to back up this network in case of a failure.

The VoIP system as well will have to support four incoming call centers, each with eight agents, 4,000 fax lines and 11,000 voice mailboxes, and it needs to be configured to support 99.999 percent reliability, the RFI said.