Scott Sinclair from the university's strategic technologies group told Computerworld new technologies are always being investigated and VOIP could reduce call costs, particularly between the smaller campuses which are already linked by fiber.

"We have a commercial ISP as part of the university so providing commercial VOIP with Asterisk would be good," Sinclair said. "We're looking at a number of products but the easy and inexpensive way to get into [VOIP] is with open source."

While making a name for itself among open source and IP telephony circles, Asterisk, which runs on Linux and Unix, has little to show for widespread enterprise adoption. Its flagship end-user sites include Melbourne-based department store chain Adairs, and Copiah-Lincoln Community College in Mississippi.

"So far we have successfully integrated Asterisk with the traditional TDM and are now looking at the presence functionality it provides," Sinclair said. "We only have a small deployment, but it's been successful so far. Being able to advertise the multiple places where you are is a powerful feature." UQ's Asterisk system consists one x86 server running Red Hat Linux.

Sinclair expressed excitement at the possibilities of VOIP for some 5500 staff and 35,000 students when "their e-mail will become their phone number using the SIP protocol".