PINE BLUFF -- As part of an ongoing effort to cut costs, Jefferson County Judge Gerald Robinson said the county has switched its telephone service to a Voice over Internet Protocol system.
In addition, he said, the county is bundling its telephone and internet into one package.
He said those measures will save the county about $180,000 annually on its telephone and internet service.
Previously, Robinson said, the county was spending between $13,000 and $17,000 a month on long distance charges alone, and the total amount the county was spending on phone service and internet exceeded $20,000 a month.
"We've cut that to about $5,000 a month or less with this new system," Robinson said. "This is going to save the county a tremendous amount of money."
Robinson said a study on the feasibility of the project began over two years ago under former County Judge Henry Wilkins IV.
"It's taken all this time to work out the quirks and get this off the ground," Robinson said. "AT&T had to install the fiber to connect the county, which took quite a bit of time, but they finally got the courthouse connected at the end of June."
Robinson said the sheriff's office and juvenile detention center fiber infrastructure is scheduled for completion by the end of July.
According to the Federal Communications Commission website, Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, is a technology that allows voice calls to be made using a broadband internet connection instead of an analog phone line.
The VoIP services convert sound into a digital signal that travels over the Internet. When calling a regular phone number, the signal is converted to a regular telephone signal before it reaches the destination.
Justice of the Peace Ted Harden, chairman of the county finance committee, said the change will bring some welcome relief to the county budget.
"We're looking at saving $15,000 a month on phone and internet service by doing this," Harden said. "That is not an insignificant amount of money for Jefferson County."
Robinson said the savings to be realized from the new system will be added onto savings that county has already seen as the result of cost-cutting measures he has put into place since taking office. Some of those include staff reductions, the sale of underutilized county equipment, tighter budget controls, and other measures to try and reign in excess spending.
"Those things we've done have helped us through the disasters we've experienced," he said. "There have been the flooding, the storms, even this covid pandemic. Everything we've done has contributed to help us get through these disasters without the county going bankrupt, and we are continuing to look for ways that we can save money."