ALLTEL BILLING CONVERSION

During the month of April 2001, Alltel will be undergoing a billing conversion. One of these changes will be moving the billing date on telephone service in areas outside of Lincoln. All state numbers will now have the same billing date which will be the 1st of the month.

Your bill from the Division of Communications may give the appearance of a calendar month cycle but in actuality many numbers are held from their actual billing cycle date until the first of the next month and then billed in arrears for service. There will be adjustment charges on the May bill to make up the differences for the lag in these days. For example, telephone numbers beginning with prefixes 223 or 944 currently have a billing cycle beginning on the 11th. Telephone numbers beginning with prefixes 879, 362, 367, 443, 643 and 761 have a billing cycle date beginning on the 26th of the month. These numbers will all be moved to a billing cycle of the 1st of each month. The partial months charges for these moves will show up one-time on your bill in May. Alltel state numbers will have current billing cycles as of June 1, 2001.

Beginning with the June 1, 2001 bill, other changes will appear in the billing detail. These include the following:

• Tariff codes are changing formats to include alpha-numeric numbers.
• You may see changes in some of the service descriptions and items that appear under billing codes 300 and 500 for one-time charges.
• In some areas you may actually see more information than before. One example is under billing code 500 where the date fields appear. Currently, some records show the beginning of service date of 00/00/00 or 99/99/99 as the current cycle date. This field will now be used to show actual dates of service that apply to the current charges shown for any new service or order changes.

The goal of the Division of Communications is to make these changes as transparent as possible to you, our customers. If you have any questions regarding the Alltel conversion, please contact Zale at 402/471-4703 or Jayne at 402/471-3454.

Billing Change for Cellular Accessory Purchases

State of Nebraska employees have historically been able to purchase batteries and accessories for their State issued cellular telephones at either an Alltel Center or authorized service center. The authorized service centers had agreements with Alltel to take the state billing information and pass it on to Alltel rather than collecting from the State directly. However, this practice is being discontinued. Therefore, in order for the State to receive the billing from Alltel, all of these types of purchases must be made at an Alltel Center. Below is a list of Alltel Center locations in Nebraska. If an employee purchases cellular batteries or accessories from suppliers that are not designated as an Alltel Center, the agency will be invoiced directly by the supplier providing the parts. Agencies will be responsible for paying for these items directly to the vendor.

This will not affect orders for cellular telephones and service. These orders will continue to be placed through the Division of Communications. If you have any questions regarding the purchase of cellular equipment , or any issues related to your cellular service, please contact Norma White at 402/471-6391 or by email at nowhite@notes.state.ne.us

Telephone Trivia

When the first phone booths went into service around 1884, the coin box did not exist. Thus, each booth had its own attendant who ushered patrons into booths, timed the calls, let patrons out, and collected the charges.

Telephone numbers in the Norfolk area beginning with (402) 370, 371, 379, 622, 644, and 844 will be served by a new digital switching system beginning April 6, 2001. This new equipment cutover will take place between 11:00 p.m., Friday, April 6, 2001 and 3:00 a.m., Saturday, April 7, 2001. Any voice or dial-up data connections in progress during the cutover will be terminated. Connections will need to be re- established after the cutover.

The telephone service is currently supplied by a Lucent Technologies 1A Switching System. Qwest will be upgrading the switching system to a Nortel Networks DMS-100 Host Switching System.

If you use Speed Calling or Call Forwarding -Variable services from Qwest, please check to be certain that they are re-established properly for you after the cutover. Any feature changes requested during the conversion period may be delayed longer than normal.

DON'T DIAL 809 AREA CODE!

Don't respond to e-mails, phone calls, or web pages which tell you to call an “809” phone number. This is a scam that is spreading quickly and can easily cost you $24,000 or more. Here's how the scam works. You will typically receive a message on your answering machine or your pager, which asks you to call the area code 809. The reason you're asked to call varies. It can be to receive information about a family member who has been ill, to tell you someone has been arrested, died, etc. In each case, you are told to call the 809 number right away. If you call from the U.S., you will be charged $2,425/per minute. You will get a long recorded message and they will try to keep you on the phone as long as possible. Because the 809 area code is located in the British Virgin Islands, the 809 area code can be used as a “pay-per-call” number. There is no requirement that the company provide a time period during which you may terminate the call without being charged, as they are not bound by U. S. regulations of 900 numbers. Victims of this scam, who have tried to fight these charges, get little response from their local phone company. They end up dealing with a foreign company that argues they have done nothing wrong. They will assert that you did make the call and owe the charges. It is recommended that no matter how you receive the message to call the 809 area code, do not recognize or investigate the message. Be cautious of all area codes you do not recognize.

Digital Phones Moved to Flat Rate

After an extensive study of digital cellular telephone usage, the Division of Communications has determined that the aggregation of use for many agencies would realize substantial savings. Based on a recent billing comparison, moving various cellular telephones into an aggregated plan will save the State of Nebraska an estimated $5,000 per month. The digital cellular telephones that will be moved to this new plan will be billed at a flat rate of $0.17 per minute. Employees with a nationwide plan or those with high monthly usage will remain on the appropriate individual rate plan.

Agencies with digital cellular telephones that will be affected by this change will be contacted regarding the change, including an estimated cost savings. This does not affect agencies that are currently on the analog system. If you have questions regarding cellular rates or service, please contact Norma White at 402/471-2761 or by email at nowhite@doc.state.ne.us

2001 STATE TELEPHONE DIRECTORIES

The 2001 NEBRASKA STATE GOVERNMENT DIRECTORIES have been distributed to all state agencies. Thank you to all of the agency communications coordinators who continue to provide us assistance in this annual undertaking. These books will once again be sold to the general public by contacting the Division of Communications at 402/471-2761 or stopping by the Communications' reception desk. The cost to the general public for the directory will remain at $5.00 per copy. The information is also available on the Internet at http://www.state.ne.us. Then select Your Government, State Agencies, then Agency Directory.

Directory Listing Closing Dates: