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Brief campus phone outage (rescheduled)

The upgrade to the campus phone system that was scheduled for last weekend (July 8-10) had to be postponed.  It has been rescheduled for this coming weekend, July 15 -17.  During the upgrade, there will a brief 10-15 minute outage on Friday night between 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. while the campus phones reconfigure themselves and register with the new server.

If you are experiencing issues post upgrade, please contact the ITS Help Desk at helpdesk@canisius.edu or 716.888.8340.

Submitted by: Lisa Mastropaolo, system administrator, ITS

10-digit dialing for local calling becomes effective this week

As announced back in October, the 716 area code needed to move to 10-digit local dialing due to the adoption of 988 as the new 3 digit number for the National Suicide Prevention and Mental Health Crisis Lifeline going live on July 16, 2022.  Starting October 24, 2021, carriers were allowed to disable the ability to dial local calls using only 7-digits.

The FCC mandates that “On July 15, 2022, all providers must complete this process in all of the affected area codes in their service areas. On and after this date, local calls dialed with only 7 digits may not be completed, and a recording will inform you that your call cannot be completed as dialed. Consumers must hang up and dial again using the area code and the 7-digit number.”

As of the time of this writing, our provider has not yet disabled 7-digit dialing.  If you have not gotten in the habit of dialing local calls using 10-digits, please do so now by dialing a 9 + 10 digit number.

Brief Campus Phone Outage

Over the course of this coming weekend (July 8 -10), there will be an upgrade to the campus phone system.  During the upgrade, there will a brief 10-15 minute outage on Friday night between 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. while the campus phones reconfigure themselves and register with the new server.

If you are experiencing issues post upgrade, please contact the ITS Help Desk at helpdesk@canisius.edu or 716.888.8340.

Submitted by: Lisa Mastropaolo, system administrator, ITS

Mandatory local 10-digit dialing

On July 16, 2020, the FCC adopted an order (FCC 20-100) approving 988 as the three-digit abbreviated dialing code to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline starting on July 16, 2022.  In order for 988 to work properly when it is implemented next year, local 10-digit dialing (area code + phone number) needs to be implemented in approximately 80 area codes across the country;  716 is one of the affected area codes.

Starting on Sunday, October 24, you must dial 10 digits (area code + phone number) for all local calls.  The 7-digit dialing that you are used to will be going away.

From your Canisius desk phone (and when sending a fax), this means that in order to make local off-campus calls, you will need to dial 9 + 10 digit number (9716xxxxxxx).  The way you place long distance calls is not affected; you will continue to dial 9 + 1 + 10 digit number.

Please note this impacts the entire 716 area code, not just the college.  For example, if you have a cell phone with a 716 area code, you will want to go through your contact list and make sure you have the area code entered for all of your contacts.  You may also need to consider things such as alarm systems and life safety systems that you may have in your home.  Contact your provider if you need assistance.

If your cell phone has a different area code than 716, you can find the list of the other area codes that are affected here:  https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-371188A2.pdf

For more information on FCC order 20-100, please visit https://www.fcc.gov/suicide-prevention-hotline

Submitted by: Lisa Mastropaolo, system administrator, ITS