Summary
To: Town Commission
From: Stefan Massol, Director of Support Services
Date: 6/16/2020
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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 a...
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