Apparently, the Board of Regents took the abundance of 10-10-321 television commercials to heart.
Beginning Friday, a new long distance carrier will handle the University community.
The decision to change long distance carriers will save the University an estimated $130,000 next year. On average, the University community uses 11.5 million minutes of long distance time each year.
At their December meeting, the regents reversed an earlier decision to renew the University’s long distance through World Com. The regents instead approved a $1.5 million request for the purchase of interstate, intrastate and international long distance service through MiCTA/Qwest.
Sydney Courtney, Qwest sales representative to the University, said the University will pay more than $100,000 to the company in exchange for the long distance service.
Courtney said in addition to the substantial savings, the University will also benefit from Qwest’s fiber optic network by enjoying uninterrupted service.
Long distance services at the University are controlled by Networking and Telecommunications Services. Director Carolyn Parnell said the change in long distance providers will likely not be noticed by University callers.
“(The transition) should be absolutely transparent to the users,” Parnell said.
Long distance providers are changed frequently at the University, sometimes as often as every two years. This year, University officials decided to use a single company for all of their long distance needs.
“In the past, we’ve had multiple vendors,” Parnell said. “This time we’re using just one.”