Upgrade Your Communications: Moving Beyond Legacy Phones in Education

The Challenge

Many educational institutions still rely on archaic legacy phone systems, including Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) lines, for critical communication needs. These outdated systems are expensive to maintain, lack modern features, and are inflexible for today's distributed and mobile workforce. The inability to integrate mobile phones effectively creates communication gaps, cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and a high total cost of ownership. The pressing need for POTS replacement is felt by many.

Business Impact

High Maintenance Costs & Limited Functionality

Maintaining legacy systems is increasingly costly due to dwindling vendor support and specialised hardware. These systems also offer minimal functionality compared to modern UC platforms, hindering productivity and collaboration. This impacts institutional budgets dramatically.

Lack of Mobile Integration & Resilience

Fragmented communication due to a lack of seamless mobile integration means staff often rely on personal devices, leading to security risks, unrecorded communications, and poor disaster recovery capabilities. The campus communication system is not resilient to modern demands.

How Tango Extend Solves This

Tango Extend enables educational institutions to effectively replace legacy phone systems by integrating enterprise-grade mobile communications directly into modern UC platforms like Microsoft Teams or Cisco Webex Calling. Staff mobiles become a full extension of the institution's communication system, providing all the functionality of a desk phone with the flexibility of mobile. This facilitates a smooth transition away from POTS lines while enhancing communication capabilities and reducing costs.

• Seamless POTS Replacement — Replace outdated analog lines with a modern, cloud-based mobile solution that integrates directly into your UC environment.
• Full UC Functionality on Mobile — Provide staff with access to conferencing, call routing, voicemail, and other advanced UC features directly on their mobile device using their business number.
• Cost Reduction — Eliminate maintenance costs associated with legacy hardware and reduce overall communication expenses by centralising mobile and fixed-line services.

Use Case

A university IT department aims to decommission its aging PBX system and replace dozens of expensive POTS lines. By deploying Tango Extend, they integrate all staff mobile phones into their Microsoft Teams environment. Faculty and administrative staff now use their institutional mobile numbers for all business calls, accessing advanced features and seamlessly communicating whether they are in their office, classroom, or working from home, all while significantly reducing telephony costs.

FAQs

Q? How does Tango Extend help replace POTS lines in schools?

A: Tango Extend allows schools to consolidate their voice services by routing all mobile communications through their modern UC platform (Microsoft Teams or Cisco Webex Calling). This eliminates the need for traditional POTS lines, offering a more flexible, feature-rich, and cost-effective alternative for campus communication.

Q? Is the transition to Tango Extend disruptive to daily school operations?

A: Tango Extend is designed for seamless deployment. As it leverages existing mobile devices and integrates with your current UC platform, the transition is typically smooth, with minimal disruption to daily operations, allowing staff to continue using their preferred devices.