Disconnecting unused phone lines

"Surveys and usage data indicate that landline telephones in most of our meetinghouses are rarely used. This unused service is a significant expense to the Church. The decision has been made to identify and disconnect all nonessential landline telephone service in meetinghouses in the United States and Canada."

The STS, Stake President and FM Assistant is to work together to identify the phone lines.

More details can be found at letters.lds.org (for those whose callings grant access).

The STS in each of the stakes within our FM group's area had a deadline of June 30th to complete an online survey for each building. In the survey, we entered which lines to cancel and which needed to be kept. In our case, the only lines kept were the ones connected to fire alarms, an emergency communication line in the stake center, the line associated with the DSL service in one building and the lines we use for audio backup during conference webcasts. All ward office, hall/library phone lines are being cancelled.

I was just called as the STS and was handed the paperwork regarding this at the same time.

Just a thought, but has anyone thought of using a service similar to GoogleVoice to setup a number for each ward and then just forward that to the current Bishop's cell phone? This would make it easy to update when callings changed and could eliminate the need for clerk/bishop office phones while still leaving each ward with a static "Bishop's number" that everyone could have. Same could be done for the "Transient Bishop" responsiblity or ward clerk.

Now I understand that maybe not all Bishop's would have a cell and/or unlimited minutes on their plan but it might be an option for some locations.

Thoughts?

Our stake did this last year. They kept the stake office phone number and all the wards have that same phone number. There's some kind of message system that answers and lets you leave a message for the specified unit. It can also ring in the stake offices. I'm not sure exactly how it works. At times I do miss being able to call the bishop/clerk office and getting a human being to answer the phone. Now when I leave a message on this system, I don't know who gets it or when. I believe the stake's system is some kind of VOIP system that's hosted by an external SIP trunk provider, as the two phones in the stake offices just plug into the internet. Presumably with such systems, if other units in the stake needed a phone, they could go on the same system and be an extension on the stake's phone system.

One of the things I found interesting is that in the list of reasons for keeping a landline, nothing was mentioned about emergency communications. POTS has been shown to be a valuable asset in extended power outages.

I thought I remembered the letter mentioning that emergency communications was a reason to keep a landline, although I'm not sure it specifically called out POTS. In several states, the phone companies are trying to get rid of the requirement to provide POTS lines, which has a negative impact in rural customers (and supposedly churches, too.)

POTS lines are great because they are powered by the telco (or cable company). That's why they work, as they have generators, batteries, etc., unless the emergency disables the infrastructure. Unfortunately, my POTS landline is from the cable company and they are switching technology away from a powered interface to one where I need to provide the power. I can buy a battery and put it in their box. I'm not excited about that, especially since I have a fire/alarm system in the house (and I have to rewire things to support their new technology). I could switch to the telco and get a POTS. I could put a cell connection on the alarm system (for an added monthly fee). I'm probably going to keep the cable company system and put a battery in the device and/or get a UPS.

mevans wrote:I thought I remembered the letter mentioning that emergency communications was a reason to keep a landline,

I thought so to. I went to letters.lds.org to find that quote, but couldn't.

russellhltn wrote:

mevans wrote:I thought I remembered the letter mentioning that emergency communications was a reason to keep a landline,

I thought so to. I went to letters.lds.org to find that quote, but couldn't.

From the letter we received:

Some situations that may lead to keeping a landline telephone include the following:
• The line is used by alarms or life safety systems.
• The line provides internet connectivity.
• The telephone is used frequently for Church purposes.
• Cellular coverage is poor in the building.
Additionally, one telephone line should remain in service in each stake center for emergency communication purposes.

We kept the line in our stake offices for emergency communications.

Now a days POTS lines aka old fashioned copper phone lines are essentially connected to the central phone offices in most cases via fiber optics to the distribution boxes and other systems that link in cell phone sites as well, so if they go down chances are the pots lines will crash too.

The most recent letter does not mention keeping a line for emergency communication purposes.

Question: How does this affect our legal liability? I was just speaking to a member who has no cell phone, if there is an emergency in the building at the time and she is there with a person who also does not have a cell phone, she said she is going to pull the fire alarm! Is that the only option? It does not seem very safe in these times to be without a land phone in the buildings. Not everyone has a cell phone.

Ann Smith

Not all fire alarms are connected to summon help. Their primary purpose is to sound an alarm to get the building evacuated.

As it is, most wired phones are (were) locked away in the clerk's office. When my stake did inventory for this project, none of the hallway phones were in working condition (although the service was still active). No one bothered to report the failure. So, for most buildings, unless one of persons in your example happened to have keys to the clerk's office, they'd be in the same situation.

I'll also note that cell phones can call 911 even if they are not activated. (The challenge is making sure an unused phone always has a charge.) In the US, there are programs to help those with low income to have a basic phone.

Stakes have some discretion in what lines are removed. A building located in a high crime area may want to keep a phone. This may be something this individual may want to discuss with their leaders.

I can see how it can be helpful to have a public phone in emergency situations, but there are a lot of buildings (libraries, museums, government buildings, etc.) that don't have publicly-accessible phones, so I don't expect that it could be a legal liability.

sbradshaw wrote:I can see how it can be helpful to have a public phone in emergency situations, but there are a lot of buildings (libraries, museums, government buildings, etc.) that don't have publicly-accessible phones, so I don't expect that it could be a legal liability.

The types of buildings mentioned are usually open at specific hours and are staffed by people who do have access to non-public phones who one could go to for help. I somewhat frequently still see one pay phone available in these places. I've heard of situations where children and youth were dropped off at church and no adult leaders were present, even though the building was unlocked. In fact recently I was mourning the loss of the foyer phone when I was at the church one evening trying to figure out how to set up for outdoor church. I accidentally locked things like my car keys and a phone in the car.

In these days of VOIP technology it could be easy and not that expensive to provide some kind of communications option in the buildings. I just had a thought: the building I was in had the new church audio system with touch screens installed. It's connected to the internet. The chapel panel could be programmed to have a phone screen on it. It would be a giant speakerphone that uses the pulpit mic and chapel speakers to conduct the phone call. It's not a private call, but it would be a way to allow someone in the building to communicate...or even make the chapel able to participate in a phone conference if you called a conference line from there.