In a continuing effort to cut government waste, Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall is focusing on a myriad of ways to conserve energy and save money. Government landline and cellular telephones play an important role in the daily work of servicemembers, civilian and contract employees. Proper use of government telephones can save thousands of dollars annually.

''When folks make phone calls from government phones in the National Capital Region, they do not need to dial 99 before the prefix and number, but just need to dial seven digits," said Curtis B. Prince, director, U.S. Army Signal Network Enterprise Center.

Prince and employees at NEC are responsible for providing phone service, network support, email, web support, computer repair and the copier program to JBM-HH and tenant organizations.

''All organizations within the NCR share the cost of telephone calls and the availability to use the Defense Switch Network," said Prince.

Prince said calls from JBM-HH and all government activities to and from landline phones in the NCR, including Fort McNair and the Pentagon can be reached without dialing the numbers 99 typically used to dial out of a location.

''For all long distance calls in the U.S. and overseas, Prince said callers must place the call using DSN. ''These calls through this system are for government use only, not personal calls," he said.

''Dialing 99 to call and order pizza is not an authorized call," said Hattie Maiden, an information technology specialist who serves as the telephone control officer at NEC. She handles all dial tones and calls coming into post, circuits and fax lines. Maiden echoed Prince's comments about phone ethics, saying, ''Long distance calls from government phones for personal use is not an emergency," said Maiden. ''The key here is to use common sense."

''Calls are not charged when someone goes through the DSN system, for example, dials 94 for the network and the DSN code 317 to call Alaska on official government business," said Maiden.