Toll-free calling between Anchorage and MatSu campuses

Over the course of the next couple of months, UAA IT Services staff, working with community campuses ,will complete installation of new Voice-over-IP (VoIP) telephone systems at all of UAA's community campuses. These systems will be identical to the system implemented on the Anchorage campus in 2007 and will be inter-connected with the Anchorage system in order to provide powerful new services.

One new service, "toll bypass," will permit callers on UAA campuses to place calls to other UAA campuses toll-free. Later in the fall, toll bypass will be extended to include phones located on the Fairbanks campus. On July 30, the first two toll bypass campus locations will come on-line. Callers on the Anchorage and MatSu campuses are now able to dial direct, toll-free calls between campuses. For an Anchorage campus caller, all that is required is to know the 7-digit (e.g., 745-9774) number for the MatSu campus phone. Then, the caller only needs to dial directly the 7-digit number for the MatSu phone similar to dialing a 5-digit number when calling an Anchorage campus extension.

This new service will save Anchorage campus callers significantly on long distance service charges. To put this into perspective, in FY09 Anchorage campus callers made 287,148 calls to UAA community campuses or to the Fairbanks (including Statewide offices) campus and paid over $123,200 in long distance charges. With the full implementation of VoIP-based toll bypass, Anchorage campus callers will avoid these costs this coming year. Money saved can be re-directed by departments to more urgent needs in support of our students and programs.

Implementation of toll bypass at the Homer and Prince William Sound campuses is expected prior to the end of August. Implementation at the Soldotna and Kodiak campuses is expected by the end of September. Implementation at the Fairbanks campus is anticipated later this fall.

Please contact the IT Call Center at (907) 786-4646 or (877) 633-3888 if you have questions about toll bypass.