Telecom's New Lower Prices

As a result of newly negotiated contracts for Centrex and long distance services, the Telecommunications Department is pleased to announce new lower rates for academic and administrative departments and centers.

Campus departments will see their costs for Centrex lines drop by about 11%, from $13.50 per month to $12.00 per month. Domestic state-to-state calls from campus departments will be charged at a flat $0.10 per minute for all time periods. International calls will also be rated at a flat rate for each country. This change will also be effective for calls made in July 1998. These new rates are effective with the July 1998 billing cycle.

Partnership in Telecommunications

The Telecommunications Departments of the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Pennsylvania Health System have signed a joint, multi-year agreement with Bell Atlantic-Pennsylvania for enhanced Centrex services.

The new contract will create a single, 30,000+ line voice communications system served from the Bell Atlantic Evergreen Central Office on a Nortel DMS-100 digital central office switch.

This new contract offers lower rates for the standard analog Centrex services while providing new digital Centrex offerings and additional multi-functional telephone equipment choices. In addition, the University and the Health System will move forward to implement a common, system-wide dialing plan to connect the main campuses in University City as well as many other remote locations in the region.

The new contract also provides the opportunity for new services offerings, including centralized automatic call distribution technology for high volume call centers, programs for remote offices, and options for students living in University City off-campus housing. These new programs will be rolled out over the next two years.

-- Laurie Cousart, Director, Telecommunications


Almanac, Vol. 45, No. 3, September 15, 1998

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