The NIU Telecommunications Department will now receive money for every 0+ long-distance call made from campus pay phones.

John Tuecke, associate vice president for Computing and Telecommunications Systems, said the money is basically a payment made by AT&T for the use of space for their phones at the university.

“AT&T takes care of the phones completely and we just provide them with the space,” Tuecke said. “(The amount of revenue) they’re estimating is essentially rent for the facility for the space.”

The Illinois Department of Central Management Services (CMS), which handles all of the billing for all of the state phones, estimates that NIU will receive about $1,500 a month for these long distance calls, but Tuecke said he is not sure of the amount at this time.

“We have never received any statistics from AT&T, so I’m not sure if that’s an accurate figure,” Tuecke said.

Tuecke said the money received from AT&T will go back to the Telecommunications Department.

“The money will go into the telecommunications income pay for amortizing the telecommunications system,” Tuecke said. “That includes providing support personnel, repairmen and replacing instruments.”

A spokesman from CMS said this type of arrangement is done frequently.

“We enter into an agreement with the long distance carrier—it’s a common agreement,” he said. “The long distance carrier keeps track of monthly usage and gives us a commission in the form of billing credit and we take it off the university’s phone bill.”