Airport Signs VOIP Plan
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By David [email protected]
The Board of Aviation Commissioners approved the plan at its Tuesday afternoon meeting.
Airport Manager Nick King said, “In working with City IT Brett Richardson, moving forward as we have high-speed Internet at the airport, the company that we are looking to sign a contract with this time is Broadvoice. They’ve come in repeatedly at the lowest cost. ... What this would do would replace all the phones we currently have, and we also are going to do some testing. The current service we have with CenturyLink is not a strong-enough signal for the Vaisala technicians to be able to dial in and talk to our (instrument landing equipment). Our instrument landing system and our weather system, they can’t remotely call in and talk to the systems because the lines are too degraded.”
The Broadvoice system, because it’s over the Internet, “should allow them to restore that service and be able to fix small problems remotely without even having to come to the airport, which would be a huge help to us,” King continued.
There is an initial cost of $754.15 for some infrastructure equipment and four telephones, but once that is taken care of, King said the airport will see some actual monthly savings. As an example, he said the airport’s phone bill this month was $668.13, but under the Broadvoice plan, the recurring monthly total will be $187.43.
“So we will be saving over $5,000 a year and we’ll be getting much, much better service,” King said, noting that he and secretary Linda Seiss both also will have voicemails.
They will be able to forward phone calls under the plan. Currently, King said, if someone calls the terminal and he is out in the field, there is no way to forward that call. Instead, the caller would have to be given a phone number, hang up and then call the other number.
“In my opinion, one of the largest helps that will be for our customer base is that when we are closed for holidays, evening hours, night hours, we will actually be able to have a voicemail automated system set up that says, ‘Airport is closed. If you need immediate assistance, please press this number.’ It also will give an after-hours fueling option with different rates that apply with that. It’s just going to allow us to have a much more complete and comprehensive phone system at a much better price than what we currently are paying as well.”
King recommended the board approve the plan, noting Broadvoice was giving the airport two phones for free. The phones are valued at $150 each.
Mayor Joe Thallemer told the board, “The City realized that going to fiber (optics) in all departments is going to allow for this type of advantage, this VOIP phone advantage. We’re already somewhat doing it down at city hall with Comcast. Brett (Richardson) has gone through and worked this contract with Broadvoice. Aviation services is one of the first to realize the benefits of fiber and savings associated with that.”
He said they sat down and went through all the costs upfront with all the departments. He said the aviation service is probably the first department to realize the benefits of the fiber optics but also the VOIP phone service and the savings that will be created. Thallemer said he was very happy with the service and savings.
Jay Rigdon, board president, said, “If we go ahead and do this, what will actually happen is we’re giving better service to customers, easier work for our employees and saving money?”
“Correct,” King replied.
In the packet for the plan, King noted there was a cost for an analog telephone adapter and a metered extension for $9.95. Federal law states that the airport has to have a payphone on site for public use 24 hours a day. That payphone currently costs the airport $45 a month, but has not been used for 14 years.
“Going to this metered extension plan, we will be able to just go and get a basic phone at a local retailer, install it in place of the payphone and the cost of that phone is only going to be $9.95 a month. If there are any minutes that are accrued on that phone that are outside of the continental U.S., then we’ll have to pay a permit fee, which I believe is 2.3 cents a minute,” King said.
Broadvoice is based in Los Angeles. The length of the airport’s contract is just shy of three years.
Thallemer said a lot of the city departments currently have contracts with Comcast. Once those run out, and all the departments are connected to the Warsaw Fiber network, the departments will be going through the same process as the aviation department.
The board also approved letting King and Rigdon sign the cover letter for the Capital Improvement Program, which includes power line and road relocations, as presented by the airport’s engineer, Ken Ross, NGC Corp. Cost for the list of items for 2017 to 2021 totals $15,602,153. Additional items for beyond 2021 total an additional $8,131,111.
“On the Capital Improvement Program, we have to prepare those, as you know, every year, and not only show the current year but next five years out. Your program is not too different. I think we’ve seen the order of these projects. Basically, we used the recommended order that INDOT had given us as to when they thought it was best to fund those, however, we used our cost estimates because they have shorted us on a few of them in the past. But that’s their way of splitting up the pie, trying to give everyone at least a stain on the radar screen,” Ross explained.
He said he’s going to continue to talk to INDOT about possibly moving up the power lines relocations. That is a “big dollar project,” Ross said, so unless someone else’s project falls off the radar, INDOT is still looking at funding the first phase of that in 2017.
“We do need to get this revised Capital Improvement Program into the state on Feb. 1. It’s very similar as you know. We put a lot of the extra projects that we may or may not be able to accomplish in the ‘out years,’ in 2021. Those can always get moved up later though as we make progress or funds become available,” Ross said.[[In-content Ad]]
The Board of Aviation Commissioners approved the plan at its Tuesday afternoon meeting.
Airport Manager Nick King said, “In working with City IT Brett Richardson, moving forward as we have high-speed Internet at the airport, the company that we are looking to sign a contract with this time is Broadvoice. They’ve come in repeatedly at the lowest cost. ... What this would do would replace all the phones we currently have, and we also are going to do some testing. The current service we have with CenturyLink is not a strong-enough signal for the Vaisala technicians to be able to dial in and talk to our (instrument landing equipment). Our instrument landing system and our weather system, they can’t remotely call in and talk to the systems because the lines are too degraded.”
The Broadvoice system, because it’s over the Internet, “should allow them to restore that service and be able to fix small problems remotely without even having to come to the airport, which would be a huge help to us,” King continued.
There is an initial cost of $754.15 for some infrastructure equipment and four telephones, but once that is taken care of, King said the airport will see some actual monthly savings. As an example, he said the airport’s phone bill this month was $668.13, but under the Broadvoice plan, the recurring monthly total will be $187.43.
“So we will be saving over $5,000 a year and we’ll be getting much, much better service,” King said, noting that he and secretary Linda Seiss both also will have voicemails.
They will be able to forward phone calls under the plan. Currently, King said, if someone calls the terminal and he is out in the field, there is no way to forward that call. Instead, the caller would have to be given a phone number, hang up and then call the other number.
“In my opinion, one of the largest helps that will be for our customer base is that when we are closed for holidays, evening hours, night hours, we will actually be able to have a voicemail automated system set up that says, ‘Airport is closed. If you need immediate assistance, please press this number.’ It also will give an after-hours fueling option with different rates that apply with that. It’s just going to allow us to have a much more complete and comprehensive phone system at a much better price than what we currently are paying as well.”
King recommended the board approve the plan, noting Broadvoice was giving the airport two phones for free. The phones are valued at $150 each.
Mayor Joe Thallemer told the board, “The City realized that going to fiber (optics) in all departments is going to allow for this type of advantage, this VOIP phone advantage. We’re already somewhat doing it down at city hall with Comcast. Brett (Richardson) has gone through and worked this contract with Broadvoice. Aviation services is one of the first to realize the benefits of fiber and savings associated with that.”
He said they sat down and went through all the costs upfront with all the departments. He said the aviation service is probably the first department to realize the benefits of the fiber optics but also the VOIP phone service and the savings that will be created. Thallemer said he was very happy with the service and savings.
Jay Rigdon, board president, said, “If we go ahead and do this, what will actually happen is we’re giving better service to customers, easier work for our employees and saving money?”
“Correct,” King replied.
In the packet for the plan, King noted there was a cost for an analog telephone adapter and a metered extension for $9.95. Federal law states that the airport has to have a payphone on site for public use 24 hours a day. That payphone currently costs the airport $45 a month, but has not been used for 14 years.
“Going to this metered extension plan, we will be able to just go and get a basic phone at a local retailer, install it in place of the payphone and the cost of that phone is only going to be $9.95 a month. If there are any minutes that are accrued on that phone that are outside of the continental U.S., then we’ll have to pay a permit fee, which I believe is 2.3 cents a minute,” King said.
Broadvoice is based in Los Angeles. The length of the airport’s contract is just shy of three years.
Thallemer said a lot of the city departments currently have contracts with Comcast. Once those run out, and all the departments are connected to the Warsaw Fiber network, the departments will be going through the same process as the aviation department.
The board also approved letting King and Rigdon sign the cover letter for the Capital Improvement Program, which includes power line and road relocations, as presented by the airport’s engineer, Ken Ross, NGC Corp. Cost for the list of items for 2017 to 2021 totals $15,602,153. Additional items for beyond 2021 total an additional $8,131,111.
“On the Capital Improvement Program, we have to prepare those, as you know, every year, and not only show the current year but next five years out. Your program is not too different. I think we’ve seen the order of these projects. Basically, we used the recommended order that INDOT had given us as to when they thought it was best to fund those, however, we used our cost estimates because they have shorted us on a few of them in the past. But that’s their way of splitting up the pie, trying to give everyone at least a stain on the radar screen,” Ross explained.
He said he’s going to continue to talk to INDOT about possibly moving up the power lines relocations. That is a “big dollar project,” Ross said, so unless someone else’s project falls off the radar, INDOT is still looking at funding the first phase of that in 2017.
“We do need to get this revised Capital Improvement Program into the state on Feb. 1. It’s very similar as you know. We put a lot of the extra projects that we may or may not be able to accomplish in the ‘out years,’ in 2021. Those can always get moved up later though as we make progress or funds become available,” Ross said.[[In-content Ad]]
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