Summary
To: Town Commission
From: Stefan Massol, Director of Support Services
Date: 6/16/2020
______________________________________________________________________
Subject:
Title
Discussion of Internet and Telephone Services
Summary:
Staff will provide an overview of current voice and internet services at the Town and discussion of service improvements and opportunities for savings.
End
Body
Background/Problem Discussion: In 2013 the Town of Belleair modernized phone services to operate using a dedicated 24-channel Primary Rate Interface (PRI) through a T1 copper connection owned by Frontier Communications and provided by the Florida Department of Management Services. This phone system is controlled using a server and provides useful features such as auto-attendant and customizable ring patterns. The phone system is reaching end-of-life and as the software and hardware will soon no longer be functional staff is recommending replacement and improvements to internet service.
Current Services:
Phone Service is provided through a dedicated PRI circuit from the Florida Department of Management Services. Our on-premises hardware for the phones, server and software are end-of-life. The Department of Management Services manages this contract, and with a very strong service-level-agreement has experienced virtually no down-time over the years. The PRI costs roughly $9000 annually and only provides voice service. The on-premises hardware costs about $30,000 installed and only includes a one-year warranty.
Internet Service is provided by Spectrum at up to 300 Megabits per second (Mbps). No minimum bandwidth is guaranteed an actual download speeds during the business day are generally between 40 and 80 Mbps. The internet service has been fairly reliable, though it has experienced short outages. Following Hurricane Irma internet service was lost for four days as one of Spectrum’s node stations was without power and unable to provide a signal to customers in our area. That forced us to use cellular data for our staff internet services, which significantly reduced ability to use essential internet services. Spectrum internet costs roughly $4200 annually with no guaranteed bandwidth.
Potential Improvements:
Phone Service
a. Extended warranty and support can be provided for the phone system equipment to keep the system up-to-date and troubleshoot issues as they arise. This would cost about $2000 per year.
b. Phone service could be moved from dedicated T1 service to a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) service. This would instead use the Town’s internet connection and would carry a reduced monthly cost of $4000 (as opposed to $9000 for SIP, savings of $5000 annually). Reliability would be a concern given the Town’s current internet service with failover to cellular lines. The internet service can be upgraded to a more reliable fiber connection to improve performance.
Internet:
a. Public Wi-Fi could be made available at town facilities. The access points should not cost more than $2000 and would cover the three buildings. A separate internet connection would be recommended as described below.
b. Dedicated fiber internet service could be installed to provide guaranteed bandwidth of up to 100 Mbps for $15,000 per year, including data and voice services. That is approximately what the Town currently pays total for voice and internet. This would give the Town a simple failover option if there are now two sources of internet which would carry voice as well as data in that scenario.
Financial Implications:
Capital Outlay for Phone System: $30,000 one-time ($4,000 per year amortized over 8 years)
Phone system support: $ 2,000 per year
Outlay for wireless access points: $ 2,000 one-time
Remove T1 Service: $(9,000) per year
Add Fiber Internet + SIP Voice: $15,000 per year
One-Time Costs Total: $32,000
Annual Recurring Costs Total: $ 8,000 per year
The majority of the additional recurring costs can be attributed to adding a secondary internet connection. This will give the Town facilities a stronger failover option for both voice and internet services. The additional support for the phone system could be very helpful in terms of maintaining reliable phone services and regular software updates.
Recommendation: None, this item is for discussion purposes only. Some of these changes may be part of a future budget amendment and the Fiscal Year 2020/21 Budget.
Proposed Motion: N/A