"We already had copper cabling in the building," he said. "The PABX is not IP-enabled, but we can do it later at minimal cost."

The decision not to deploy VOIP was made two years ago, and Tuffin said he is sceptical about the technology from reading about it in the media and "not being involved in an installation".

"I didn't feel the cost [savings] and quality is there," he said. "We are a project team and don't need best technology all the time, but it's a future possibility. Reading about it in IT literature, a lot of people say VOIP for office environments is just not there [yet]."

The project team is "well on track" to complete the synchrotron by March next year when the facility will be handed over to either ANSTO or an equivalent research institution.