WM phone system upgrades hit a snag

WM phone system upgrades hit a snag

Issues with switch- over center on emergency lines

news@theeveningtimes.com

“Drop a dime” used to refer to making a pay phone call, and the phones at West Memphis City Hall have not been upgraded since a pay phone call cost that proverbial 10 cents.

The last phone contract at City Hall was done in the 1970s, long before the Internet was born, and it has the phones to prove it.

Now the new fiber-optic communication network installation for the West Memphis city buildings has hit a snag. The purpose for the upgrade is to improve city communication by integrating phones, and Internet. The city utilities department is overseeing the $80,000 upgrade project that links the 14 city buildings. Assistant Utilities Manager Todd Pedersen reported to utility commissioners the work stalled at a key point and contention with the contractor has developed.

The last place anyone wants communication to drop is during an emergency.

“We have not been able to transfer over the fire stations yet,” said Pedersen.

“That is where our issue is.

We want to make sure those data networks and services are secure and reliable when we make that transition. That conversion is still a month to two months away, its going into reprogramming.”

Utilities Control Engineer Zach Winters provided details about the whole project and the particular challenges at the fire department.

“We need guaranteed reliability on the contractors service end,” said Winters.

“It’s a setting issue when their system updates. We’re making sure their settings changes are permanent and it stays up all the time like the rest of the sites. With it being the fire de-partment, before we switch over to the AT& T fiber and put them on the city network, we want to make sure it is completely reliable. We don’t want to loose communications or Internet at the fire stations.”

Winters provided an overview and as the project has already solved problems at certain city buildings.

“We will have one completely integrated phone system for all 14 city government buildings,” said Winters. “We have the potential for one gig fiber at every city location. We can run the whole city one network behind one firewall if we want. But, what we will do at first is provide Internet and let the fire department and everybody run their own networks.”

The upgrades help the city meet mandated state standards for city communication networks according to Winters.

“Eventually it will simplify meeting state fiber security specifications,” said Winters.

Regarding the city offices along the levee, the upgrades brought two city buildings up to date with good results. Some antiquated technology problems have already been solved at the waste water treatment plant and animal control office which share a campus on the southeast side of the city.

“The animal control office and the waste water treatment plant could not get Comcast,” said Winters.

“They were on dial-up.

Now they have fiber and are already up and using it.

Now we are trying to get the rest of the city up and running.

Elsewhere more city outposts with outdated communications remain on hold. City Hall awaits the fire department hurdle to be cleared and remains standing in line awaiting upgrades and voice mail does not work at the Utilities building. Phone messages there are still taken the old fashioned way by the receptionist that answers the

phone.

By John Rech