UpDate - Vol. 11, No. 16, Page 1
January 9, 1992
Phone changeover set Jan. 18

     On Saturday, Jan. 18, Diamond State Telephone will finish
installing the University's new telephone system. on the Newark
campus, the result of a changeover to a sophisticated digital
switch.
     All of the University's 8,000-plus phone numbers will be moved
to the new telephone switch.
     Effective Jan. 18, faculty and administrative (non-student)
phones will have an exchange of 831 (UD1), instead of the current
451, 453 and 292 exchanges, and student phones will have an
exchange of 837 (UDS) replacing the current 731 and 738 exchanges.
The changeover also will affect fax lines on the Newark campus.
     The two, new exchanges will be dedicated to the University's
use. Telephone extensions (the last four numbers) will not be
altered, and current telephone equipment will still be able to be
used.
     Jan. 18  will be the final step in the testing and checkout of
the new switch.
.TX.-
Intercept messages planned
     As of Jan. 18, the previous telephone exchanges (451, 453,
292, 731 and 738) will no longer work. As a convenience for callers
who did not see the University's publicity in advance of the
change, there will be an intercept message provided by Diamond
State that will direct the caller to redial the number with the new
exchange.
     The message will specify 831 (UD1) or 837(UDS), based on the
number dialed, using the same last four digits as before. The
University will keep this intercept message in place for one year,
so that callers who have access to outdated material will still be
informed of the change.
     The new intercepts will take some time to install; many of the
old numbers will not have the intercept in place for as long as
40-50 hours after the cutover. All of the intercepts are expected
to be in place by the time the normal University work week begins
on Tuesday, Jan. 21, but residence hall rooms and other University
facilities that might receive calls over the weekend against the
old numbers will not benefit from the intercept. Calls to the old
numbers will appear to ring with no answer until the intercepts are
installed for each line.
     Callers who dial the new 831 (UD1) or 837 (UDS) numbers in
advance of Jan. 18 will hear a different intercept message,
indicating that the new numbers are not yet in service and asking
the caller to continue to use the old number until the cutover
date. This intercept is already in place.

Telephone 'hotline' planned
     While the number of problems introduced as a result of this
change are expected to be minimal, Diamond State has recommended
that a telephone "hotline" be established specifically for the
purpose of reporting problems or asking questions about the change.
Established primarily for use by on-campus callers, "6655" will be
available for use by anyone who has a question or is experiencing
a telephone problem as a result of the change.
     From Jan. 18 until Jan. 23, the number will be answered 24
hours a day by Diamond State staff who will have specific
familiarity with the changes in progress and can respond to
problems reported. This number will also be in service from Jan. 2
until Feb. 14 and will be directed to the Telephone Services office
before and after the actual cutover period. Off campus, both
451-6655 and 731-6655 will be recognized until Jan. 18, and both
831-6655 and 837-6655 after Jan. 18.

Four-hour service outage
     From 7 a.m. until 11 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 18, most
telephones on campus will be without a dialtone and will not be
able to receive or place calls. In addition, the intercept messages
for both the new and old exchanges will not be working during that
period. Students in residence halls and any University facilities
that are open or any faculty or staff who are in their offices on
Saturday morning will be affected by the outage and should alert
any potential callers that neither the new nor the old numbers will
work during the four-hour period.
     This will be a progressive outage: Not all phones will be
taken out of service at 7 a.m. and some may experience much shorter
outages. However, there will be no indication given to any
particular line before it is disconnected, and any calls in
progress at the time of the cutover for a particular line will be
disconnected without warning.
     Exceptions to the four-hour outage will include all pay phones
on campus, which are not involved in the change. In addition, the
campus red emergency phones and the University Police building on
Amstel Avenue(451-2222 and other numbers) will experience only a
brief outage at the end of the four-hour period. A small number of
other University numbers will be designated as critical and will
also be kept active until the end of the period.

Impact on computer users
     While the University's main computer systems will be
operational throughout the Saturday morning transition period,
those who are accustomed to accessing MVS, UDELVM, DELCAT, BRAHMS
and other campus computer systems via modem will find that the
telephone outage will interfere with their ability to access those
computers. In particular, at some time between 7 a.m. and 11 a.m.,
the numbers 6150, 6152, 6185, 6432, 6435 and other similar modem
numbers will be disconnected with no warning, and any computer
sessions active at the time will be disconnected.
     Unless work in progress can be resumed easily once the outage
is over, the safest approach will be to avoid using the computer
via dial-up modems during that period.
     Sign on messages during and before the outage will warn
computer users of the outage period. Sessions conducted via
data-over-voice and Ethernet will not be affected by the outage,
and all public terminal and microcomputer sites will be unaffected.
     After the cutover, individuals with computer modems with
automatic dialers will need to make sure that the modems are
updated to dial the new "831" numbers instead of the old "451"
numbers.