2008 Woodie Awards
NGU to switch phone services - students get the hang up
By: Chris Bullard
Issue date: 4/16/08 Section: News
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Staff Writer
North Greenville University is pulling the plug on their current telephone service provider and making the switch to a newer and more innovative system.
NGU's contract with the current provider, AT&T, expired on March 31, but the school will continue with AT&T until April 30, when the service will switch to the new provider, NuVox.
The switch is planned to begin at 4 p.m. and will take several hours to complete.
Heading up the switch is Paul Garrett, director of information technology for NGU.
The plan to switch services was handed down to him from the school's Vice President of Business Affairs, Elaine King.
According to Garrett, NuVox will only provide a T1 into the school, connecting the new system to the outside world, but the school will own the servers and be internally managed by the university's Information Technology team. (A T1 is a high-speed Internet connection that is designed specifically for telephone connectivity.)
The school is providing new telephones for the faculty that will work with the new system and plug directly into the network.
The new phone system will provide many perks the school does not have access to, such as centralized voice mail (so faculty can check messages on and off campus without having to provide their own answering machine). It will also provide call routing capabilities that make reaching the voicemail box of specific people possible when calling the school after hours.
The biggest gain that comes with switching services is the money that the university will be saving.
The estimated amount of savings is around $15,000 a month, adding up to around $180,000 a year, which will most likely go back into the general budget.
While there are many advantages to the new system, students are left without a dial tone.
Student phone lines have already been cut off in preparation for the switch, and no phone access will be provided in student dorms unless the student contacts AT&T to get a line connected and pays the bill for that line.
"When I came here in 2001, I was surprised that we were providing dial tone to all the students, basically free of charge. And in 2001, it was needed. But now, the vast majority of students have cell phones, and there are only a few students that bring phones to school and plug them up in their rooms," Garrett said.
Student Services has cooperated with some international students that do not have cell phones by providing them with a pre-paid cell phone that has 300 minutes, but once those minutes are used, the students will be responsible for reloading the phone's minutes.
"We wanted to make sure that, for those students who didn't have cell phones, that they had something that would at least take them to the end of the semester," Garrett said.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
Answering service
posted 9/25/08 @ 11:33 AM EST
I have to admit that this is so much different from the area I live in, we don't have student phone lines, I guess we are few steps behind with this. It's never too late to learn. (Continued…)
BrianC
Brian
posted 10/03/08 @ 4:58 AM EST
Wow. Quite the change from when I was at NGU. I always liked the ability to bring my own phone and plug it in. That allowed family to call without having to use up minutes on my cell phone which weren't cheap. (Continued…)
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