NGN Communications Access Billing

Find out how UCSD's Next Generation Network (NGN) billing works.

The NGN Recharge Summary Report is now in Production! Search by Employee or OFC Chart String elements to obtain a breakdown of the NGN charges assessed to the general ledger.

NGN Recharge Summary Report

A flat monthly charge is levied automatically for each campus employee who qualifies as a Communication User, as determined by the employee's payroll job code. This charge replaced telephone line and computer network charges. Charges normally follow the employee's payroll effort percentage and chart strings. Due to the complexity of the NGN retro logic, NGN only follows retro payroll transactions looking back 12 months from the current billing period. Retro transactions over 12 months back will need to be corrected by the department via a cost transfer.

A UCSD employee is considered a Communication User when other employees in the same job (title) code generally use a telephone and/ or the UCSD data communications network as part of their daily work. A campus-wide committee evaluated every job title and determined whether the majority of its constituents did or did not qualify. Employing the "Communication User" category as a basis for charging is not meant to be a precise reflection of individual use, but rather a fair mechanism for aggregating and averaging communications charges over departments.

It is important to note that NGN is a socialized cost model that distributes the cost of maintaining the network and data infrastructure. 

• See a list of Communication User Job Codes
  • Determines whether an employee, based on their job code, will be charged NGN or not.
• See a list of Communication User Groups Assigned by Directory Location
  • Determines which NGN rate the employee will be charged, based on their Directory location. See table of Communication User Groups below.
  • Remote and Telecomute employees are not excluded from NGN and do not have a separate rate. The location assigned to an employee's Directory profile should reflect the physical location of their employing home department.

See approved rates in the chart below:

* 22/23 Rate Effective for September 2022 NGN (posted 1 month in arears the accounting period of October 2022)

Charges to Contracts & Grants:

• Faculty Contracts & Grants: Charges are assessed on the funds from which faculty salaries are paid, including grants, contracts, start-up funds, and other sources. The percentage of NGN charge assessed to any fund source, including a grant or contract, will be the percentage of salary on that fund source.
• Other Academics and Staff are charged as Communication Users at the percentage of their salary on the contract/grant, up to 100%.
• Contracts & grants are not charged for Graduate Students. NGN fees for graduate students are paid by the Vice Chancellor areas.

Monthly Fees Include:

• Voice services: Basic voice service (digital or analog telephone line), customer service, feature packages for phones, line repairs, and technical support
• Data services: Switched Ethernet data service, on- and off-campus network access, electronic mail services, DHCP service, line repairs, and technical support
• Wiring: Fiber optic cables between buildings and category 5 (or better) cables inside buildings
• Equipment: Upgrades for backbone and building network switches
• Wireless: Wireless data network access in selected public areas and classrooms, and in new building upgraded projects
• Local and domestic long distance calls (after July 1, 2006)

Monthly Fees Do Not Include:

• Installations, moves, or changes for data and voice lines
• Telephone and computer instruments
• Voicemail
• Experimental networks and exceptionally high bandwidth needs
• Special-use rooms and computer labs