Disconnecting Inactive Phone Lines
October 11, 2011
The work that began in late 2009 to migrate all existing telephone lines at Duke to voice-over-Internet-protocol (VoIP) has been completed, but about 1,700 lines are still listed as "connected" to the 25-year-old legacy system called the 5E switch. The 5E switch is at the end of its usable life and will soon no longer be serviceable by Duke’s phone service providers.
In anticipation of decommissioning of the 5E switch, we have worked diligently with all of our Duke stakeholders and customers to identify and migrate phone lines that were supported by the 5E switch over to the VoIP platform. The 1,700 remaining lines have not identified by departments as part of the transition process, are not tied to a specific location and have not been active during the last 60 days.
To ensure that any required lines are identified and moved to the VoIP system, we will use a two-step process to decommission the legacy system. On Monday, Oct. 17, we will perform a "soft disconnect" of the outstanding lines currently connected to the 5E switch and implement a two-week observation and reconnection period. During this time we will turn these phone lines off, but we will allow for the phones to be reconnected and migrated to the VoIP system. Once the two-week period has passed, these phone numbers will be permanently disconnected and the switch decommissioned. The disconnected phone numbers will be reserved for a few months to ensure that any number previously assigned can be reactivated on the VoIP system if necessary.
To minimize any end user impact during this "soft disconnect" period, we are asking for your support by doing the following:
- Please share this communication with your team.
- Please ensure that all alarm and service lines for your area are properly working during this "soft disconnect" period.
- Please report any unanticipated telephone/monitoring disruptions to the OIT Service Desk at 919-684-2200 or online at http://oit.duke.edu/help, or DHTS at: 919-684-2243 or online at https://banquo.duhs.duke.edu/dhts/hdoutage.nsf
Note: Information about the line (telephone number, room number, building, etc.) is needed to finding the correct line to reconnect.
For additional questions please contact Joe Lopez at 919-613-1000 or joseph.lopez@duke.edu.