The University’s voice over IP (VoIP) migration project is nearing an end with over 13,000 Bell Centrex telephone lines migrated to VoIP over the past 4 years. While the goal was, and still is, to migrate as many lines as possible, we recognize that certain lines must remain on the Bell Centrex system. The majority of these lines are used in elevators and in the University’s Code Blue emergency call boxes. Some departments have also chosen to maintain a certain number of Centrex lines for emergency backup purposes in the event that the VoIP service is unavailable (e.g. during power outages).
As was anticipated at the beginning of the project, with fewer Bell Centrex lines under contract, the monthly rate for a Centrex line will increase beginning December 1, 2020.
The UofT Telecommunications Team has signed the new contract with Bell and the cost per line is the following:
Contract Start Date: December 1st 2020
Contract Term: 60 months
Monthly line rate without voicemail: $34.85 + HST
Monthly line rate with Bell voicemail: $44.20 + HST
Note: The above monthly rates include a $7.00 Telecom Admin fee.
The line cancellation terms under this new contract are different than in previous contracts. Any departments maintaining Bell Centrex lines after November 30, 2020 should do so with the full understanding that they are responsible for all cancellation and/or early termination fees incurred during the contract term for lines that they cancel before the end of the 5 year term. Under the terms of the new contract, the cancellation/early termination fee is equal to monthly line rate x the number of remaining months.
Attention: All Departmental Business Officers:
The Telecommunication/VoIP team requires the following information from you:
1) Are you migrating any remaining departmental Centrex lines to VoIP (Y or N)
If migrating, an action is required from you to inform the Telecom team before Oct 16 in order to place our VoIP order. We will require a ‘Discovery Sheet’to process any migrations with an anticipated porting date to occur before Nov 6 2020.
2) If you are keeping any Centrex lines for use by your department, your department is accepting the financial responsibility for the lines for the duration of the 5 year contract term. Your department is responsible for all early termination fees incurred should you choose to cancel lines during the contract term.
Please note that the Centrex billing process for departments does not change. The Telecom team will continue to be engaged after Dec 1st with the current process, but with the new Bell Centrex and Telecom Admin rates applied.
Call Xpress Voicemail:
Please note that the existing on-premises Call Xpress voicemail service will be retired and replaced with the Bell voicemail service.
By November 30th 2020, all Call Xpress voicemail boxes will be deleted. For any remaining Centrex lines requiring voicemail service departmental Business Officers will need to submit a request to the Telecom team to set up a new Bell voice mailbox. An alternative to Bell’s hosted voicemail service is a VoIP voicemail service hosted by our VoIP vendor at a monthly cost of $7.17 per line (includes admin fee). The Telecommunications team will assist with this as requested and can answer any questions about these services.
For Centrex lines being migrated to VoIP, voicemail is included in the monthly cost. Those voicemail lines will be activated during the migration process on the date of your porting to VoIP. No additional action is required.
All questions should be sent to: voipsupport@utoronto.ca