Internet phone proposal gets busy signal from city

Donovan Vincent city hall bureau
Some councillors think the city could save millions with new telecommunications technology.
The government management committee was debating last week whether to extend by two years the city's contract with Bell Canada.
Holding two tin cans joined by string, Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong – who is not on the committee but made a presentation – said his hands contained the equivalent of the city's current telephone and telecommunications system.
"We're stuck in the mud,'' he said, arguing that moving to a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) system would save the city millions of dollars and improve productivity.
VoIP converts phone conversations to data that can be transmitted using the Internet as a phone system. The City of Mississauga has used the system for five years, and staff there say it has saved money and been problem-free.
In September 2003, Toronto awarded a five-year contract to Bell. The contract wasn't to exceed $75 million, and has actually cost about $60 million. Bell provides telephone service to nearly 1,000 locations connected to city government, with about 23,000 telephone lines, and a separate computer network connecting more than 700 locations. City staff have proposed extending the contract for 2009 and 2010, for up to $35 million.
But the city could save $1.7 million going to tender for each year of the extension, Wendy Hrapchak, senior account manager with Telus, told the committee. "We urge the city to retender the contracts and take advantage of the anticipated cost saving through a fair and open competitive process.''
Committee chair Gloria Lindsay Luby supported sticking with Bell for now, saying the city needs time to complete the complicated job of switching technology.
But the committee voted to ask staff to further study the possibility of limiting the extension or committing only to month-to-month agreements for now.
Source: thestar.com