Transit incorporates new online phone system

Fulton County Transit Authority completed their “technology puzzle” recently by putting a new phone system online. Literally.

Called Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), the system literally uses the Internet for voice communication and multimedia sessions including fax and voice-messaging.

Basically, the communication system is no longer what Alexander Graham Bell had in mind when he invented the telephone.

“It doesn’t really function any differently than a landline,” explained FCTA Manager of Information Systems Nikki Hamrick. “Unlike the old landline system, though, we do not have multiple phone lines. All calls come in and go out over fiber lines.”

FCTA has one phone number, Hamrick further explained, and with that number is the option to have 16 calls going on at one time on that same line.

In addition to new phones, dispatchers and call takers now have the ability to use wireless headsets to make answering calls more efficient for them.

One difference the users have had to take into consideration is the three-second delay between answering the call and the caller being able to hear their voice over the Internet.

This time frame gives the system the opportunity to change the human voice into

The system will allow FCTA employees to be flexible with work sites as well. The two recent inclement weather episodes in the Fulton area allowed employees to work from home while using the FCTA phone system as if they were working from the Eastwood Drive office.

Employees who have an agency cell phone have downloaded an app that allows the new phone system to be used anywhere the employee might need to conduct FCTA business – from home, in other areas of the Commonwealth, or even hundreds of miles away from the Fulton area.

Although the employees could use the Internet to conduct FCTA business, having the VoIP system allows their calls to be more recognizable on caller ID and gives them access to caller lists stored within their desktop phone.

It also allows them to immediately answer questions and concerns from callers rather than forcing them to leave voicemails and wait for return calls.

As with any new technology, the system has been a learning curve at FCTA. Hamrick and FCTA IT Tech Ryan Henderson have been helping their coworkers understand the basic principles of the new system as well as become familiar with all the functionality of the new phones.

Other parts of the technology puzzle include updated computers, Driver tablets and cradles, and an improved vehicle tracking system.