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The 86th Communications Squadron will soon begin implementing a personal identification number program for all government telephones in the KMC.
“A PIN is like a debit card PIN, only you use it to make a phone call,” said Capt. Erica Juchter, 86th CS deputy operations flight commander.
Telephone users will be given a seven-digit PIN they will dial before being allowed
to make off-base calls from a military phone.
“This should only add two seconds to a phone call,” said Lt. Col. John Zapata, 86th CS commander.
Once a person receives and signs for their PIN, it’s theirs until they PCS.
When the PIN program has been fully implemented, phones within the KMC will only be able to dial defense switch network numbers.
If a phone call needs to be made to an off-base number, a PIN will be required. This PIN can be used on any phone in the KMC.
“A person can visit Kapaun Air Station for a day and use their PIN on any phone there,” Zapata said. “There is no limit on the number of times a PIN can be used.”
The PIN program is mandatory per Air Force instruction and is also fiscally smart, Zapata said.
“Everyone in the Air Force has been asked to look at how we can reduce our budget and it’s important to target the things we can control,” he said. “This PIN program is one way we can do that.”
The PIN program is an efficient way to track the use of government phones and control the yearly phone bill.
“We performed a nine-month trial of this program in 2009 with 20 units and the savings on the KMC annual phone bill was over $100,000,” Zapata said. “Those kinds of savings add up.”
To make sure this program does not hinder the mission, units will be able to exempt certain phones from the program, he said.
“The unit commander will need to approve a list of which phones should be exempted due to mission requirements. The list will then be validated by the communications squadron,” Zapata said. “These exempted phones will still be able to make phone calls worldwide without the use of a PIN.”
Many hours of work have gone into implementing the PIN program.
“There is a substantial amount of in-depth programming required within the base telephone switch,” said Tech. Sgt. Michael Parrish, 86th CS NCOIC of cyber infrastructure systems.
In addition to the technical programming needed for the PIN program, user education will also be key, he said.
“In order to inform DSN telephone users how to use their PIN, information sheets will be sent to unit leadership,” Parrish said.
Not every person in the KMC will receive a personal PIN, but the 86th CS is
providing a way for everyone to dial off-base, Parrish said.
“Anyone without a PIN can contact their unit’s telephone control officer to receive a control number. When the user calls the base operator they will give that control number to the base operator and be connected off-base,” Parrish said. “Unlike the PIN, this control number can only be used once.”
The 86th CS is implementing this program within the communications squadron first to work out any potential bugs and then disperse it across the KMC.
