Users of the RightFax centralised faxing solution might have noticed that we've been experiencing ongoing, intermittent problems with incoming faxes.

About once every week and a half or so, RightFax decides not to accept incoming fax calls for about eight hours. It eventually recovers, but there does not seem to be anything we can do to accelerate the process. If we're unlucky, it happens during working hours.
...read more

We are currently rolling out new telephones across the Campus. The current
telephone system did not meet our listed requirements fully and in trying to
do so revealed some unacceptable instabilities. While serious attempts were
made to correct this it became obvious that it would take time. To overcome
this the manufacturer offered us their premium name branded system at no
extra cost. Extensive testing of this product indicates that this meets our
requirement and we are now rolling out the new phones across the campus. I
need to add that this is a completely different System in its entirety......read more

Phone renewal - the next phase.

It might seem that the phone renewal project is complete. This isn't the case....read more

The transition to the new PBX is complete, and the old Philips PBX will be decommissioned by the end of May. Most of the outdoor extensions were cancelled in April, but unfortunately there has as yet been no change in the monthly Telkom account reflecting the considerable savings associated with the cancellations. This is not unexpected, and is being followed up with Telkom who have assured us the cancellations will be backdated to 31st March.

There are only a few analogue phone lines left at Rhodes, mainly wardens, dedicated fax lines and emergency phones. Some of these are still Telkom outdoor extensions, and line rental is being paid for them. All of them conn...read more

The installation of the first batch of phones is in progress - Biological Sciences, HKE and Sports Union will be completed early next week.

The next batch of about 300 phones should be delivered on Monday 7th Feb, and we expect to start rolling them out towards the end of that week.

These phones will be installed in:

Main Library ~ 30 phones
Africa Media Matrix ~ 70 phones
Botany Dept and Dean of Science ~ 14 phones
Physics Dept ~ 20 phones
Geography Dept...read more

The first phase of the phone roll-out will take place next week, the 31st January, and will make use of the first batch of 200 working phones. The areas identified for the roll out are:

Research Office ~ 9 handsets
Hamilton Building ~ 40 handsets
Chem/Pharmacy building ~ 60 handsets
BioSci building ~ 55 handsets
HKE ~ 10 handsets
Sports Admin ~ 10 handsets

Exact details and timing will be communicated to staff in these areas in the next day or two.

N...read more

It seems that we will be in a position to start a limited roll-out of phones early next week. Planning is in progress to determine the "best" areas to tackle first, and we will shortly be notifying affected departments.

The delay has been frustrating for everyone, and the basic cause is Rhodes' insistence that the PBX system be installed to comply with the requirements put forward in the original tender. It has become clear that the supplier (BCX), and the manufacturer (Avaya), un...read more

...read more

...read more

...read more