NEW STATE BACKBONE NETWORK

On Tuesday, July 15, 2003, Lt. Governor Dave Heineman, University President Dennis Smith, State Commissioner of Education Doug Christensen and Leo Perreault, President, Alltel Nebraska held a joint press conference in Kearney to initiate the first phase of the new telecommunications backbone project. Described as “the most important technology issue the Nebraska Information Technology Commission has been working on”, this network will aggregate the purchasing of telecommunications services in a design that can meet the needs of many different entities. Implementation of Phase I represents the first step in building a telecommunications "backbone" that is intended to serve a wide range of existing and potential users. Following a competitive bidding process, a contract was awarded to Alltel for expandable, high bandwidth network services connecting Kearney, Grand Island, Lincoln and Omaha. This connection represents Phase I of a multi-phase approach to creating a statewide system. The RFP for Phase II has just been released, which will extend the network northward to Norfolk and westward to North Platte and the Panhandle.

Phase I promises several tangible benefits. These include:

• The State and University will save an initial combined $5,300 per month, compared to today's costs;
  
  
• The contract and technology bid provides for improved scalability, which means that we only pay for the bandwidth that we need, when we need it, in the increments we need;
  
  
• Alltel will deploy a new technology (Multi Protocol Label Switching or MPLS) in Grand Island, Lincoln, and Omaha. MPLS provides redundancy, the ability to economically connect differing networks, as well as provide the scalability needed by the potential network participants;
  
  
• MPLS will also support multiple protocols in a secure environment, which is essential to sharing bandwidth;
  
  
• Using the contract with the state as financial anchor, Alltel plans to make MPLS a technology available to any private or public entity in these communities, which will add to the benefits of this initiative;

Phase I is scheduled for implementation on October 1, 2003. As services are migrated on to this network, we believe agencies will see cost savings and efficiencies. If you have any questions regarding the backbone services, please contact Dan (dward@doc.state.ne.us) at 471-9543 or Heath (heath@doc.state.ne.us) at 471-1015.

NEW CALLING CARDS

The Division of Communications has contracted with Alltel Communications to provide new calling cards in September 2003. Agencies will be billed at the new calling card rate of $.12 per minute for the 2004 fiscal year, down from $.13 per minute from last fiscal year.

New calling cards are on order and will be distributed to State agency communications coordinators around September 1st. Communications coordinators will be responsible for distributing the new cards to personnel within their agency. When received, the calling card users should start using the new Alltel cards immediately. Agency personnel who receive a new Alltel calling card should destroy the old AT&T calling card. All AT&T calling cards will be deactivated October 1, 2003.

DIRECTORY LISTINGS

The Division of Communications publishes a listing of upcoming commercial directory closing dates in each LINES OF COMMUNICATION issue for your convenience. Changes to these listings can be made at anytime. However, It is best to make changes as they happen in order to keep the listings up to date. For more information, contact LaDonna Pankoke at 402/471-4701.

Some agencies have started to receive sales ads and invoices from various Yellow Page companies. Many of these ads are actually orders for listings in private directories that can be very expensive. These are not directories that the Division of Communications places listings in. If you have any questions regarding the type of invoice you have received from one of these companies, please contact Shelley Reed at 402/471-4960.

SPECIALIZED USER REPORTS

Beginning July 1, 2003 a fee of $.52 per report will be charged for any Special Requested Monthly reports that resort current billing data. These reports are in addition to the standard billing detail provided. Other one time requested reports such as a Master List Of All Telephone Numbers On Job code Files or other One-Time History Of Call Details will also have a fee based on the size of the report. The minimum charge for this type of report will be $5.00 per request. If you would like further information, you can contact Zale (ZCONNELL@DOC.STATE.NE.US) Connell at 402/471-4703.

BILLING SUMMARY

Starting in July a BILLING SUMMARY page will be included with your billing detail. It will summarize the charges being billed under each Bill Code for the month. This is the same information that was previously printed directly on your invoice/IBT. If you have any questions regarding the new format, please contact Shelley Reed (sreed@doc.state.ne.us) at 402/471-4960.

SURPLUS OF EQUIPMENT

The following are suggestions to assist the Division of Communications to efficiently surplus telecommunications equipment. We would appreciate your help with the following:

All facsimile machines should also be surplused through the Division of Communications if:

If you have any questions, or concerns regarding the surplus of any telecom equipment you can contact Norma White (nwhite@doc.state.ne.us) at 402/471-3562 for assistance.

NEW EMPLOEE

Pauline Schmidt has recently joined the Division of Communications staff. Pauline is with Accounts Payable and can be reached at 402-471-2762, pschmidt@doc.state.ne.us.

Directory Listing Closing Dates: