e-Science Projects VoIP and Video Conferencing VoIP and Video Conferencing
In 2009, a national VoIP service supported in the National Research and Education Network, RCTS, was made available to the whole public scientific and higher education system that, given its large size, became the largest VoIP network in the country. The services developed involve extending the possibilities of holding teleconferences and video conferences from computers in the institutions of scientific system and national higher education that can be easily activated by the users, facilitating remote collaboration within the whole system.
The services that have been developed include the rolling out of tele- and videoconferencing options from computers connected at Portuguese state scientific and higher education institutions. These can be easily activated by users themselves, which makes distance collaboration easier throughout the system. Once this system has been fully rolled out, it promises to revolutionise voice and video interaction for collaborative work in the different state university and polytechnic institutions in Portugal.
Voice communications within the whole national public scientific and higher education system, with this VoIP project funded by the Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) and the Knowledge Society Operational Program (POSC), became free of costs to the institutions of the system, and the aggregated sourcing of both fixed and mobile voice external communications to operators of voice and mobile, allowed a significant reduction in the costs of voice communications with the outside of the system.