The Office of Information Technology will be performing a software upgrade on the university’s telephone switch. This software upgrade will require a short service interruption.

On Wednesday, August 6, 2008, many campus telephone customers, primarily faculty and staff, will experience a loss of dial tone beginning at 4 a.m. and lasting for approximately 15-20 minutes. Campus pay phones, contingency (Centrex) phones, and cell phones will be unaffected. Callers attempting to reach campus extensions during this period will hear a busy signal or an intercept message from Verizon.

Phase I of the upgrade, which required a similar outage for a different population of campus telephone users, was successfully completed on July 30.

These outages have been scheduled during off-peak usage hours to minimize the adverse impact. Each telephone customer should only be affected by one of the scheduled service interruptions. We regret any inconvenience these outages may cause.

After the maintenance, the green speaker light may be flashing on some model 7406+ phones. To reset the speaker light, press "Select" then "Speaker."

If you have any questions, please contact the OIT Help Desk at 301.405.1500 (faculty and staff) or 301.405.1400 (students).

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If you cannot reach the University of Maryland Department of Public Safety at the regular numbers during the phone outages, you can contact them via the following alternate contact methods:

• Call one of the following contingency telephone numbers:
  • 301.403.4543
  • 301.403.4544
  • 301.403.4219
  • 301.403.0507
• Use AOL IM to send an Instant Message to a Police Communications Operator at user name "emercommcenter."
• Call the Prince George's County Police at 301.333.4000. They have direct radio contact with the Department of Public Safety.