Networking & Telecommunications Services and Rates for FY 2004

A number of ISC Networking & Telecommunications (N&T) service and rate changes will go into effect on July 1, 2003. Most of these changes result from recommendations made by the Network Planning Task Force, a cross-campus team made up of undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and staff which discusses and resolves issues surrounding the planning and funding of PennNet. The Task Force's recommendations are summarized in the December 2002 N&T State of the Union presentation at www.upenn.edu/computing/group/nptf/archive/2002/
SofU/index.html.

Highlights of FY 2004 Changes

• Pobox e-mail. There will be several changes for Pobox e-mail. The Pobox server platform will be upgraded and the base amount of storage per account will increase to 40 MB from 35 MB. A new rate structure will reflect the cost difference between the two types of security available to account holders: Basic Authentication Security and Kerberos-based Enhanced Authentication Security. The latter is more secure and uses reduced staff and server resources.

• Mailing lists. The rate for maintaining large mailing lists will change to reflect the actual cost of list maintenance.

• Web services. The entire service/rate structure will be simplified and free basic (Bronze) service eliminated. A basic annual charge of $295 per directory (50MB), with additional services and storage available a la carte, will replace the current structure.

• Wireless LANs. PennKey authentication should replace authentication based on recording the MAC address of each device that is authorized to use a particular LAN. See www.upenn.edu/computing/wireless/ for details.

• Network Installations. The $55 per job "order processing fee" will be dropped from all network installation requests.

• Automatic Speech Recognition. N&T implemented automated internal directory assistance using speech recognition. Call 6-4242 (215-746-4242) and get directly connected to faculty, staff, students, and departments on campus.

• Legacy 10Base2 network service. This service will be eliminated on 6/30/03. The previously announced service discontinuation date was 12/31/02 in the March 5, 2002 Almanac.

• Legacy telephone systems. Eagle and Extrom telephone systems on campus are 15-20 years old and will soon not be supported. Please call 215-898-2298 to upgrade your system.

Rates for Existing and Selected New Services

Long-distance direct-dialed calls are charged at a flat per-minute rate. Domestic direct-dialed state-to-state long-distance calls will be billed at $.10/minute. International direct-dialed calls will also be billed at a flat per-minute rate per country. Note: Rates are subject to change. This flat rate does not apply to ISDN or Operator-assisted calls of any type e.g., credit card, third-party, collect, directory assistance, etc.

Allocated Costs

Allocated charges cover the cost of providing a unified telecommunications system (voice infrastructure, operator services, directories, etc.) for the University. This cost is shared by all those who use the system, and is evenly allocated as 30% of total monthly equipment (telephone lines, sets, and voice messaging) costs to each department or center.

Student Telephones

Student rates are available at www.upenn.edu/sts/support/billing.html.

Labor Rates

A complete list of ISC Networking & Telecommunications labor rates can be found at www.isc-net.upenn.edu/rates/#labor.

If you have any questions or need assistance determining which services you require, please call ISC Networking & Telecommunications at (215) 898-2883.