The Merit network provides local, 800, and Global dial-in services to the University of Michigan. Last May, ITCS announced that U-M's local dial-in service would be turned off on January 2, 2007. Any student, faculty or staff member who used this local dial-in service since that announcement has received subsequent reminder messages from ITCS and CAEN.

The Merit network also provides 800 and Global dial-in services directly to the College of Engineering. Merit has more recently announced that these dial-in services will end on July 2, 2007. These services are intended to provide access for people who are on business travel. They are too expensive to be used as a local dial-in option. CoE faculty and staff have had automatic access to these dial-in services to facilitate their use when on travel, and the College administration paid for the use of these services centrally.

On January 2, 2007, coinciding with the end of local dial-in services, automatic access to the Merit 800 and Global dial-in services for CoE faculty and staff will also end. The Merit 800 and Global dial-in services will not be available for individuals to use as a replacement for the local dial-in service. Faculty and staff who wish to use these services while on business travel will be able to request temporary access for the duration of their trip until July when these services will also be ended by Merit (see below).

Why was the pre-paid College-wide access to the 800 and Global dial-in services ended?

There are two primary reasons for ending the central payment for Merit 800 and Global dial-in service for CoE faculty and staff:

1. Current use of the dial-in service is quite low; 15 faculty members and no staff used the service during the Fall 2006 semester.
2. If all of the faculty and staff use of the local dial-in service moved to the 800 and Global services, the cost to the College would be prohibitive.

Requesting temporary access to 800 & Global dial-in

When a College of Engineering faculty or staff member is traveling on business, broadband services at hotels, conference centers, airports, etc. are nearly always less costly than dial-in services, and provide much faster and more convenient connections. However, if one requires access to dial-in services while on business travel between January 2 and the end of the service in July, they may contact the CAEN Hotline (Phone: 734-764-CAEN, Email: caen@umich.edu) and college-funded access can temporarily be enabled for the duration of the trip.

Note: Faculty and staff who wish to use these services for other than business travel are able to make their own arrangements with ITCS to pay for their Merit 800 and Global dial-in usage, until Merit ends this service in July 2007.

Alternatives to U-M & Merit dial-in services

If you are still using U-M's local dial-in service from home, you should have received several reminders from ITCS about finding a replacement service before January 2. Centrally funded Merit 800 and Global dial-in services should not be used as a replacement for the local dial-in service, and if you are using the 800 or Global dial-in services from home you will also need to find a replacement service before January 2.

The University may negotiate a replacement plan for the Merit 800 and Global dial-in plans with a dial-in service provider. Any additional information about that will be shared as it becomes available.

ITCS provides a web page with more information on replacing the local dial-in service for home use. It has a list of alternative Internet Service Providers (ISPs), including cable modem, DSL, and dial-in service providers:

• http://www.itcs.umich.edu/internet/dial-in/