Telephone Management Policy
Policy Owner: Manager, Telecommunication Services
Note: An owner must be a PCES-level manager or higher.
This policy provides formally documented management expectations and intentions.
The Postal Service is committed to providing a high-quality, reliable, secure, and cost-effective voice communication environment to support its business needs.
Telephone Management provides voice communication among employees, customers, partners, and suppliers in accordance with security and privacy policies and standards.
This policy applies to all Postal Service personnel and contracted vendors. It applies to all information resources, technologies, services, and communications that are part of the Postal Service network.
Telephone Management includes but is not limited to the following:
Local Telephone: Telephone service provided by an incumbent Local Exchange Carrier (I-LEC) or a competitive LEC (C-LEC).
Long Distance Telephone: Intrastate and interstate telephone service provided by Inter-Exchange Carriers (IXCs).
Toll-Free Telephone Service: A telephone service that allows the customer to call for free using a 1-800 number or equivalent.
Pay Telephones: Telephones that require the customer to pay prior to the call.
Paging Services: Building announcement services.
Home-Based Telephone Lines: USPS will not fund for any telephone services at homes for any employees. This includes voice lines as well as any Internet services including DSL or Cable modems.
Key System: Electronic phone system used to supply service to small Postal facilities.
PBX (Public Branch Exchange): Large computer based system used to supply service to large Postal facilities.
VOIP: Voice Over IP is one of the standards used to transmit voice calls over a converged voice and data network.
Government Emergency Telecommunications Service (GETS): GETS provides emergency access and priority processing in the local and long distance segments of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). It is intended to be used in an emergency or crisis situation when the PSTN is congested and the probability of completing a call over normal or other alternate telecommunication means has significantly decreased.
All new local telephone, long distance telephone, toll-free, and paging services or changes to the existing Postal Service telephony infrastructure must be approved, managed, tracked, and monitored by Telecommunication Services. Departments and organizations shall be permitted to fund their own additional service requirements provided that ongoing costs are taken fully into account in such instances.
GETS may be provided to employees performing National Security or emergency Preparedness functions for the Postal Service.
A predetermined number of telephones shall be assigned to each Postal Service facility. The individual assignment of these telephones shall be the responsibility of each Postal Service facility manager.
The Postal Service telephone services budget shall be continually monitored and adjusted, to reflect changes in departmental and administrative needs. The funding for new telephone service shall include budgetary recognition of their telephone-related needs.
Appropriate authorizations are required for the processing of telephone requests submitted to the Postal Service. This includes budgetary authority, as well as departmental or facility signing authority.
The Postal Service will investigate and repair reported telephone problems as soon as reasonably possible unless the fault was caused by negligence.
It is unlawful to obtain or attempt to obtain telecommunication services by use of a false, fictitious, or counterfeit number. It is also unlawful to charge telephone calls to the telephone number or credit number of another person without valid authority. Avoiding or attempting to avoid payment for telecommunication services by use of any fraudulent scheme, means, or method is prohibited by law and by Postal Service regulations.
Postal Service departments are responsible for reviewing their monthly telephone charge statements to verify that charges are accurate.
Additionally, Postal Service telecommunications managers must oversee telephone management policy in the following areas:
Maintain supervisory certification that toll calls under their jurisdiction are for official business, emergency purposes, or are authorized personal calls.
Collecting money from those who use Government telephone services to make unauthorized personal calls.
Preventing or minimizing adverse effect on the performance of the employee’s official duties or the effective function of the employee’s organization.
Implementations or changes to telephone service must adhere to the Telecommunications Request Process. All Postal Service personnel and contracted vendors must adhere to the Telephone Management Standards. Telecom Services is responsible for designing, engineering, and implementing all VOIP services. All service requests for VOIP must be sent to Telecom Services. No other organizations are authorized to order or implement this service.
For access to the following documents, contact the US Postal Service. See Publication 5, Let's Do Business for further information about local US Postal Service contacts.
Version #1.0
Section(s) Revised: N/A
Revision Description: Baseline
Revision Date:
Version #1.1
Section(s) Revised: All
Revision Description: Updated the look and feel to be consistent with the other policies, processes, and standards.
Revision Date: 08/25/2010
Version #1.2
Section(s) Revised: Scope
Revision Description: Revised Home-Based Telephone Lines verbiage.
Revision Date: 11/25/2008
Version #1.3
Section(s) Revised: All
Revision Description: This document was made Section 508 compliant and was converted to HTML.
Revision Date: FY12/Q3