Brigade installs IP telephone system

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue sees big reduction in costs

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue (NYFR) expects to make significant cost savings on by installing a brigade-wide IP telephony network.

So far all but eight of the area's 38 fire stations have been upgraded to the new infrastructure that will reduce telephone call costs, since the project started in autumn 2001.

'We've seen a big reduction in call costs,' said network manager Gerry Seal.

'We expect a significant impact once the whole network is rolled out because around half of all calls made from stations are to other stations,' he said.

The initial impetus for the project came when the brigade's biggest station, in York, was flooded in 2000.

'The flood killed both the data and the telephone network but we still had the kilostream link to our HQ.

'So we thought why not put the voice traffic down that because out of York's £1600 annual phone bill, £1000 was for calls to HQ,' said Seal.

Another important driver was ease of management.

'We can now centrally manage the network.

'We can change extensions and features on extensions from HQ, and don't have to drive round to the individual stations,' said Seal.

The next phase of the project is to install the added features available on an IP network.

The brigade is hoping to implement some added features towards the start of next year. Plans include extension mobility, so an officer can go to any location, key in a PIN and that phone becomes their extension, and unified messaging allowing voice mail and email to be accessed from PCs.

Video conferencing is also a consideration, says Seal.

'If officers want to hold a meeting at least half of them have to travel some distance to get there so we will look hard at video meetings.

'Once the backbone is in place incorporating video conferencing won't cost as much as if we had separate systems, so we expect it to be quite cost-effective to implement,' he said.

The network was installed by Voyager Networks.