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Item 1.C.
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| City Council Regular | |
| Date: | 12/19/2022 |
| Title: | AllStream PRI Services |
| Presented by: | David Watterson, IT Director |
| Department: | Information Technology |
| Presentation: | No |
| Legal Review | No |
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends that City Council approve a contract with AllStream for Session Initiated Protocol - Primary Rate Interface (SIP-PRI) services for three (3) years, with five (5) one-year options to renew, at an annual cost of $18,025.80
BACKGROUND (Consistency with Adopted Plans and Policies, if applicable)
The City of Billings owns and maintains our own Voice Over IP (VoIP) telephone system which provides dial-tone, auto attendant, conference calling, long distance, voicemail, and other phone services to all of our city facilities. AllStream (originally One-Eighty or Integra Telecom) has been our PRI & long distance phone services company for the past 20+ years. We currently have two (2) PRI lines at City Hall and one (1) at the Fire Station #1/Communications Center which together provide our phone system with access to make and/or receive up to 69 simultaneous calls throughout the city, region, and the world.
Information Technology advertised an RFP for PRI services, in which, we requested to have two (2) PRI lines at City Hall and one (1) PRI at the Fire #1/Communications Center along with long distance, directory, and redundancy services. We additionally requested each vendor provide pricing and details on moving the two (2) City Hall PRI lines to the Stillwater Building when requested during the 3-year contract period. We received three (3) responses. The RFP committee reviewed the proposals and unanimously selected AllStream as the best proposed solution due to their complete and informative response, their competitive pricing, the presence of local technicians, and their experience with the city. AllStream’s proposal provides us with the services we requested, a future move to Stillwater Building, sufficient ISP bandwidth for future replacement of our Guest Wi-Fi ISP services, and monthly pricing that saves the city approx. $5,015/yr compared to our existing services.
Note: There will be no build cost to move the current City Hall PRI services to the Stillwater Building. Once we move to the Stillwater Building, we will have an increase in month expense of approx. $32/mth.
Information Technology advertised an RFP for PRI services, in which, we requested to have two (2) PRI lines at City Hall and one (1) PRI at the Fire #1/Communications Center along with long distance, directory, and redundancy services. We additionally requested each vendor provide pricing and details on moving the two (2) City Hall PRI lines to the Stillwater Building when requested during the 3-year contract period. We received three (3) responses. The RFP committee reviewed the proposals and unanimously selected AllStream as the best proposed solution due to their complete and informative response, their competitive pricing, the presence of local technicians, and their experience with the city. AllStream’s proposal provides us with the services we requested, a future move to Stillwater Building, sufficient ISP bandwidth for future replacement of our Guest Wi-Fi ISP services, and monthly pricing that saves the city approx. $5,015/yr compared to our existing services.
Note: There will be no build cost to move the current City Hall PRI services to the Stillwater Building. Once we move to the Stillwater Building, we will have an increase in month expense of approx. $32/mth.
ALTERNATIVES
City Council may:
- Approve the contract with AllStream for SIP-PRI Services OR
- Not Approve and provide staff with direction on how to proceed.
FISCAL EFFECTS
The Telephone Budget within Information Technology Department has the approved budget to pay for the ongoing PRI services at a rate of $1,920.14/mth. The new 3-year contract from AllStream will cost $1,502.15/mth representing a savings of $5,015/yr.