State Hires Consortium to Develop New Phone System

After 36 years, the state is hanging up its old telephone system, replacing it with a faster, cheaper and more versatile network that is expected to improve services to taxpayers, it was announced Wednesday.

The new system, called Calnet, will be built by a team headed by GTEL, a subsidiary of Thousand Oaks-based GTE California, the state’s second-largest local phone company. Participants include International Business Machines, MCI Communications, Rockwell International and Northern Telecom, said GTEL Vice President C. Richard Williams.

The team was awarded a 10-year contract worth about $67 million.

Calnet, which will also serve most of the state’s local governments as well, will be the nation’s second-largest private network after the federal government’s, Williams said.

For taxpayers, Calnet will deliver more information services for the state--handling data and voice, and eventually video as well--for less than the $12 million that the state paid for voice-only service last year, said Allan Tolman, assistant telecommunications chief for the state Department of General Services.

The present Automated Telecommunications Switching System, or ATSS, was a pioneering venture when American Telephone & Telegraph and its old California subsidiary, Pacific Telephone, installed it in 1964, Tolman said. But government’s widespread use of computers and data processing centers in the intervening years have made ATSS’ voice-only capability a major drawback. One result has been a costly proliferation of separate data networks, which will be consolidated under Calnet.

The state will also improve its cost management by centralizing billing, which now is handled by scores of departments and agencies, Tolman added.

The 1984 breakup of AT&T;’s Bell System, which combined local and long-distance service, delivered the coup de grace to ATSS, Tolman said. When AT&T; lost its local phone companies, ATSS became a relic of the simpler and noncompetitive world of Ma Bell. The federal judge who ruled over the breakup agreement gave the state until 1991 to replace the old system or be forced to use the network used by ordinary consumers at about double the cost, he said.

Under the new contract, the state will deal with GTEL as prime contractor, but the company will tap the talents of its partners, “a bunch of companies that before would have been all competing for this business,” Williams said. “Instead we formed a team to put together the best solution.”