I am writing in response to inquiries about the university's decision to select a new campus telephone prefix and more specifically the associated process for handling telephone referrals.
Referrals are the prerecorded messages which refer the caller to the new phone number.
Early in the process to change to the new prefix we requested a volume discount from Pacific Bell to refer all campus telephone numbers. However, we were informed that the Public Utilities Commission which regulates Pacific Bell requires a ten dollar per month charge for each business line that is referred. Consequently, we could not negotiate a volume discount. This decision meant that telephone numbers for individual employees would NOT be referred. The cost of the departmental referrals would be absorbed by the Office of Academic Computing.