Approval of Contract with CenturyLink to provide Upgraded Phone System Support through increased Bandwidth and Session Count.
Background Information
Gila County currently uses CenturyLink phone trunks to connect its VoIP phones with the outside world. Five years ago, Gila County upgraded its services with CenturyLink to provide trunks and bring Caller ID and other features to County phones. Today, Gila County is running up against phone limitations due to bandwidth limitations on the existing SIP trunks as well as the maximum number of concurrent phone calls we can make.
Evaluation
To meet the current and future needs of Gila County through the VoIP phone system, an upgrade must be done to the bandwidth of the trunks and the number of concurrent calls. The phone trunk in Globe, located at the Sheriff’s Office, would increase from 1.54Mpbs to 100Mbps, and the phone trunk in Payson, located at the Sheriff’s Office, would increase from 1.54Mbps to 10Mbps. These phone trunks would also have a fundamental change in architecture, in that they would change from T1 connections to Ethernet connections. This will provide for an easier opportunity to increase the bandwidth in the future. As well, the number of phone calls that can be placed also needs to increase. This contract would increase the total calls from 36 to 48 concurrent sessions.
This contract would increase the current cost of the phone system by $983 per month.
Conclusion
An upgrade of the phone trunks will provide Gila County with more phone bandwidth and allow Gila County to hold more concurrent phone calls with the outside world. This will alleviate intermittent issues where IT runs up against the maximum concurrent calls and new phone calls do not go through or get dropped.
Recommendation
The Information Technology Director recommends that the Board of Supervisors approve the upgrades to the County phone system through a 3-year contract with CenturyLink to increase the phone trunk bandwidth and concurrent phone sessions.
Suggested Motion
Information/Discussion/Action to approve a 3-year contract between CenturyLink and Gila County to provide upgraded phone bandwidth and an increase in the maximum number of concurrent calls in the amount of $103,589.48 to be paid over 36 monthly installments. (Kelly Riggs)