Incidentally, with the current state of the market, it is much cheaper to build our own modem pool than to buy access commercially, so a central modem pool reduces overall costs. In contrast, central toll-free access does not reduce overall costs. Nevertheless, the issue of providing toll-free access to the campus intranet and the Internet from locations outside the campus's local calling area is an important one. Toll-free access can be achieved now if you purchase it from an Internet service provider. This arrangement allows individuals to make the determination of whether the advantages outweigh the cost of this service.
Departments can pay the costs of a provider where appropriate.
It has not been possible to negotiate significantly more favorable terms with a provider for the whole campus, so leaving the decision to individuals and the departments doesn't involve the loss of any economy of scale. A related issue exists for providing access to employees who are traveling on university business. Any suggestions here would be a constructive way to move this discussion forward. All these options are very expensive. They would shift the modest, controlled costs now incurred by departments to a large, poorly controlled cost that is incurred centrally.