A former military fortress turned island resort has rolled out its Cisco Systems Inc. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) system, looking to save primarily on long-distance calls by replacing its traditional telephony system.

Grande Island Resort in Subic Bay, The Philippines, is the first resort of its kind in the Asian country to use an IP telephony system from Cisco, according to Cisco officials during a briefing held here.

With VoIP, the resort has consolidated into a single network voice and data. The system also connects its marketing office in Metro Manila and an office in mainland Subic.

All of the resort"s 80 rooms are equipped with Cisco IP phones and the entire island is covered by a fiber optic network. The resort is connected via microwave to its mainland office in Subic, which is linked via an E1 line to the Metro Manila office.

Julius Buen, Grande Island"s IT manager, said the return of investment will come primarily from savings in interoffice communication.

"Our calls to Metro Manila are now treated as local calls, not long-distance calls anymore. We are looking to save as much as 80 percent on long-distance calls alone," Buen said.

Prior to its IP system, the resort was using a traditional PABX system that cost 3 million pesos (US$53,390), excluding long-distance charges.

Investment

Buen disclosed in an interview that the resort has invested about 6 million pesos in the system, including the IP phones in its remote offices and a server worth 150,000 pesos which runs the resort"s telephony infrastructure.

"The savings also come from maintenance aside from administration which has become so much easier because the system can be managed remotely," said Buen, who

manages the system from the mainland Subic office.

The resort also plans to deploy wireless connection or Wi-Fi within the island as well as offer videoconferencing services. The island"s frequent visitors are business groups that conduct team-building seminars and conferences.

Since its rollout last March, the system, according to Buen, is mostly used for voice calls. "We"ve tallied about 1,000 Internet users per month since we started," he said.

The resort charges guests 5 pesos per minute for long-distance calls and 12 pesos per minute for calls made to cellular phones. For 500 pesos a day, guests can also avail themselves of a 24-hour broadband Internet connection.