As of March 17^th, 2021 at 5:00 pm, Missouri State University has switched to a new provider for the telephone lines connecting the University to the off-campus world. While there is some new functionality which will be coming to our users, there are also some changes that we, as users, will need to be aware of.

The FCC has new regulations regarding the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline which were adopted on July 16^th, 2020. For more information, please see the State of Missouri's document   on the topic.

As a result of these changes, local calls in certain area codes will have to be dialed using all 10 digits of the phone number. As luck would have it, 417 is one of the area codes where this will be necessary. Where you would have previously contacted the City of Springfield from on campus by dialing 9-864-1000, as of March 17^th, you will need to dial 9-417-864-1000.

Eventually this new rule will affect everyone in the 417 area code, but our new telephone provider is implementing the rule to all new business customers already. This means that we must start dialing this way when we switch to the new lines.

On-campus calls must still be made using the 5 digit extension number. All off-campus calls from on-campus will still require "9" to be dialed. For long distance calls using your phone number dialing the "1" will be optional, you can reach the Missouri State Commissioner's Office by dialing either 9-1-573-751-2971 or 9-573-751-2971.

If you have any questions about this, please contact the Telecommunications office via email at Telecommunications@MissouriState.edu or by phone at 6-5100 from on campus or (417) 836-5100 from off campus.