PORT TOWNSEND — The Port Townsend School District’s new phone system is now fully operational after several weeks of miscommunication between the two vendors involved in the transfer.
District Secretary Mary Colton said Friday that the new system is working now.
It allows direct-dial communication between members of the public and school personnel, a capability the old system did not have.
The new system incorporates Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) which allows callers to transfer, teleconference and forward voice messages, among other features.
For the first three weeks of school, fewer than 10 of the approximately 100 phone numbers were accessible from the outside.
The resultant severe switchboard bottleneck ended in many dropped calls, according to district officials.
The school district, seeking to modernize its communication system, changed its phone provider this year from CenturyLink to Jive Communications of Orem, Utah.
A majority of the phone numbers were not ported over in time for the beginning of school even though the system hardware was in place Aug. 1.
David Engle, district superintendent, made repeated calls to CenturyLink with no result, he said.
He filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission that was acknowledged but not acted upon, Engle said.
On Sept. 19, CenturyLink spokesperson Jan Kampbell told the Peninsula Daily News that some orders are not completed because they are not filled out properly, adding that CenturyLink would contact Jive on Sept. 22 to aid with the transition.
After that contact, Jive and CenturyLink worked together to finish the port according to Michael Sharp, Jive’s chief operating officer.
“Porting numbers between carriers can sometimes be a bit messy,” he said.
“But after some attention from both the FCC and the press, CenturyLink worked pretty closely and quickly to get everything resolved, and all the numbers were ported over on Thursday,” Sharp said.
Sharp said that Jive works with CenturyLink on a regular basis and that his company appreciated the special attention the larger company expended for the transfer.
The new system will cost $55,600 for the 2014-15 school year, about $8,000 more than the previous system, “for much-increased capabilities,” said finance director Sara Bonneville.
The district also paid $3,400 for 10 high-use phones and four sets of conference equipment. The 164 basic phones cost the district nothing.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
