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The Rice Thresher
Phone:
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by Leslie Liu thresher editorial staff
Networking and Telecommunications Director Farrell Gerbode said it was partly as a result of a Thresher reporter who said that surely something could be done about getting the feature added. Also, Gerbode said he had met with groups of residents and knew that resident associates were particularly interested in call waiting because they felt it was important to their jobs as RAs to know that a call was coming in while they were on the phone. "We went back to confirm with the company that installed the switch that in fact their original information was correct, and we found somebody working with them that thought it was possible," Gerbode said. "We eventually found a solution that worked." Telecommunications Manager Reggie Clarkson said the Rice department was unclear in the first place as to why contractor Williams Communications, a network provider, kept telling them it was impossible for both voice mail and call waiting features to exist in the system. "Really, what we did is that we didn't understand why call waiting wouldn't work either, so we asked [contractor] Williams to go to Nortel, and really, I think they just went to smarter people," Clarkson said. Williams Communications has investments in Nortel Networks Corp., which manufactures telephone switches that Williams distributes. "The normal implementation of voice mail is that it answers the phone both if you don't answer the phone and if you're on the phone ... that's where Williams was coming from," Gerbode said. "We're changing that model for the students ... it's a hybrid solution," he said. "Voice mail is acting as an answering machine rather than the way voice mail is usually understood." Clarkson said the Nortel people put a patch on the existing program, which they did at no charge. "They came one day, made some software changes, and last week we were able to change the global program for all 850 college phones [to allow call waiting]," Clarkson said. Other features of resident phone service include three-way conference calling, the ability to transfer calls and the ability to put callers on hold. For problems with the new system, Clarkson said Williams will have three people through the first week of September that can be reached through the Telecommunications Hotline at ext. 5555 between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The hotline will always be available during business hours to reach Rice Telecommunications staff. After office hours and on weekends, students will be able to leave messages about problems which will be addressed when office hours resume. Clarkson said the service will be better than that provided by local telephone service providers since Rice can respond faster and there are no charges for fixing phone problems. "I do anticipate some issues with the multi-user voice mail system," Clarkson said. She said because the first person who tries the system must submit a password to share with his roommates, the submailbox system tends to become complicated. During Orientation Week, Clarkson said there was one major problem. "A poor individual whose [extension] number was 1800 had people who were forgetting to dial '9' calling. ... This poor freshman kept getting phone calls in the middle of the night," she said. Many people calling toll free 1-800 numbers apparently forgot to dial '9' for an outside line first. Clarkson said they were able to change the phone number for the student Monday morning. Currently, about 3,800 extensions are in use, and the system has the capacity to expand to 10,000 ports. For long distance, students can contact AT&T College and University Services themselves to change the default long distance rate of 15 cents per minute to other nationally advertised plans (see box), or use their choice of service provider through a toll free number. Students can get their long distance codes from their college coordinator. Clarkson said Telecommunications had no control over the default rate, since phone companies such as AT&T usually charge a high rate in order to encourage customers to contact them. "I do not use the long distance they provided, I use a phone card of my own," Wiess College sophomore Aarti Bhalodia said. "I find that much easier. For local calls, I think it's much easier than the previous [system] just because you don't need to call Southwestern Bell and go to them." Regular phone service will be billed to students at $54 per semester by the Cashier's Office. Direct access to the long distance via 1+dialing (numbers such as 10-10-220) will not be available, since students can only receive long distance bills. "I like it that you can dial directly to the other rooms," Lovett College junior Megan Terrazas said. "But with the whole long distance thing, it's easy to use, it's just a whole lot of numbers to dial. I didn't have any trouble setting it up, they just gave me my card and it was already set up."
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