UIS Mulls Phone Service Changes

Stephen Kim '03 loves his gold, palm-sized Samsung 6100 cellular phone.

He waxes poetic about its voice-activation feature and the abundance of rings he can choose from.

Most of all, he praises its economy.

"I got it to make long-distance calls home because I think [Harvard's plan] rips you off," he says. "A cell is just more practical and you can get a lot of different uses out of it."

Kim is just one of millions of people worldwide joining the wireless troops.

But as more and more students move away from Harvard's phone system to more cost effective alternatives, Harvard may have to raise its phone rates to cover the costs of network wiring.

And Harvard says as its current service plans fast become outdated, it will consider some radical alternatives--including a University-wide voice-over IP Internet calling system--to ensure that UIS is not left behind by new communication trends.

"[The long-distance plan] is this big elephant sitting there," says Nancy M. Kinchla, director of Harvard's University Information Systems (UIS), "One of our goals this year is to do some strategizing because the entire technology of voice communications is changing."

Rising Costs and Declining Usage

For the first time since its inception, Kinchla says the number of long-distance minutes used by students decreased last year--from 17 million

two years ago to 15.5 million this year..

And while she says the decrease is not very great, she adds that it reflects a larger trend.

"This isn't just happening with student minutes," Kinchla says. "Faculty and staff minutes are going down as well, which is an e-mail issue. And usage by summer school students was very low."

The decline comes as more phone users turn toward cellular phones and Internet communications tools.

The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) estimates that there are more than 100 million wireless subscribers in the United

States, with a new subscriber joining every two seconds.

Discount calling cards, e-mail and free Internet telephone services like Dialpad.com are transforming communications, too.

"I use Dialpad because it's free and I'm cheap," says Katherine A. McEnaney '03. "I'm not going to spend money for long distance if I don't have to. I actually forgot my PAC number months and months and months ago."

With all the options out there, usage of Harvard's long distance calling system is declining.

The system is based on the concept of breaking even while recovering from students the millions used for the 1990 rewiring of student dorms.

UIS charges a surcharge on its long distance rates intended to pay for the cost of the 1990 rewiring.

Kinchla says as long distance use declines, the callers who continue to use Harvard's system may have to pay higher fees.

The University rejected one other option for covering the rewiring cost--charging a flat fee on every student's term bill.

"Most schools charge a 'technology fee' that may cover the cost of provisioning basic phone lines, wiring, network support," Kinchla says. "Harvard has really tried not to do this, instead preferring to recover the

cost of services by charging those who use them."

As a result, if the University is to cover the cost of rewiring with a smaller and smaller number of long distance phone users, it must charge greater surcharges.

Kinchla says she also worries that less favorable contract offers from telecommunications companies will lead to rate hikes.

Harvard negotiates a new contract for a minimum number of minutes roughly once a year with outside telecommunications vendors.

Currently, students can choose from three long-distance plans, provided by Worldcom.

Plan A is a traditional plan, with higher rates during the day--25 cents per minute--and lower rates during the evening and weekends. Plan B is 12 cents per minute, all day. And Plan C is eight cents a minute, all day, with a $5.95 monthly charge.

While Kinchla says these rates are competitive with those offered by traditional long-distance providers like MCI and WorldCom, she adds that these rates may rise this school year, when a new contract with Worldcom goes into effect.

"The new contract goes into effect in December so rates might change," Kinchla says. "The vendors have become very protective and inflexible...we had trouble this time."

Exploring Alternatives

Kinchla says UIS is currently testing voice-over IP technology with some members of the Faculty and staff. Voice-over IP calls are made over a data network instead of a voice network.

The technology--currently used by Internet companies that offer free long distance services--could offer cheaper and more reliable phone service.

Kinchla emphasizes that the new technology is still untested here, even if it "makes a lot of sense."

"It's very, very immature," she says. "It has a long way to go before you could make sure it works, and works well, but it looks convincing that this is the way things are going to go."

Gates Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering H. T. Kung says he agrees that voice-over IP might be a good long distance alternative--on an adequately equipped network.

"As long as network bandwidths are sufficient, Internet telephone

services will work," Kung says. "Their quality may not be great, but their costs

can be much lower than traditional phone services. As long as the total value including quality, cost and convenience is reasonable, people will use it."

"Various technologies will coexist in the next several years," he adds.

Kinchla says that as phone users habits change, larger phone companies will also need to offer new kinds of plans.

"AT&T, WorldCom, companies like that--they're in trouble," Kinchla says. "It'll be interesting to see what they'll come up with."

While Kinchla stresses that plans for a voice-over IP system are still preliminary, she says she expects big changes for Harvard's phone system in the coming years.

"There are all kinds of strategies that need to be formed in the next 18 months," Kinchla says.

--Staff writer Juliet J. Chung can be reached at jchung@fas.harvard.edu.