City-owned buildings move to VOIP

The reason is Aurora's new Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) system, which will replace traditional phone lines in every city-owned building. The VOIP system runs over the city's $8 million, 43-mile-long, fiber optic ring, installed underground between 2006 and 2008.

The new VOIP phones will come from Cisco Systems Inc

The new VOIP phones will come from Cisco Systems Inc. Since the city owns the fiber network, internal calls will now cost nothing, although the city will still pay for outgoing external calls. But the city has been paying $21,000 per month to lease phone circuits from AT&T, and that cost will go away with this switch.

The new system also will streamline the city's phone system, which means every city number will now begin with the prefix 256. (That means the help line now will be 256-INFO.) Currently, there are more than 10 different prefixes assigned to city government phones, and city leaders see this as a way to make things less confusing.

The switchover started in late June

Ferrelli said the switchover started in late June and early July, and the vast majority of the new phones are now in place. Ferrelli said the last four digits of the new numbers will change as well, and the new numbers will be listed on the city's website. The old numbers will still work during the transition period but will lead to voicemail messages containing the new numbers.