(May 22, 2005 - Thomasville, Georgia) City government hopes by summer’s end to convert all the city’s phone lines to phone service the city will run.

The City of Thomasville is working to expand its CNS customer base by offering phone service. The service will not be available to the public until 2006. In the meantime, city offices will test the system to smooth the kinks.

“We’re still doing a lot of the basic ground work that needs to be done to provide service,” said Lynn Williams, assistant city manager. She said phone services are highly regulated. “It’s very important that we develop our tariffs correctly,” Williams said. Williams said the city is working with a consultant on that matter.

Don Atkinson, assistant city manager-utilities, said the city signed an agreement with BellSouth earlier this month. The agreement essentially defines how calls will be handled when a City of Thomasville phone service customer calls a BellSouth customer or vice versa, Williams said. Williams said an agreement will probably need to be signed with Alltel to cover the same circumstances.

The next step in the city’s desire to offer its CNS customers phone service is choosing focus groups for feedback. The focus groups would represent different segments of Thomasville’s population — small and large customers, both residential and commercial. Williams said the city’s goal is to serve 3,000 phone lines over a three-year period.

About $600,000 was budgeted in the city’s 2005 fiscal year budget for the telephony project.