LEWISTON – City Hall’s conversion to a new Voice Over IP system was 99 percent successful, according to officials.

Most residents and businesses in the area had no problems Thursday making calls to the city’s new 513-3000 telephone number.

But a handful of Time Warner telephone customers and businesses with their own switching systems couldn’t get through to City Hall on the new system.

“It’s not an unusual thing when a brand new telephone exchange comes into play,” said Peter Bassett, Lewiston’s Management of Information Services director. “The only thing we can do is wait for those businesses to update their databases and keep the old phone number working for a while.”

The city turned the switch on the telephone system at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday. The city will continue taking phone calls at the old number, 784-2951, during the transition. But the new main number will be 513-3000, and each City Hall department will get its own individual phone number.

The City Council approved upgrades to the city’s phone system in the 2007-08 capital improvements plan.

It uses Voice over IP, a computer protocol that uses fewer lines to connect more telephones more quickly. It will also let the city create direct dialing extensions, letting people dial city departments directly instead of going through a central switchboard.

The conversion is costing the city roughly $270,000 for new handsets and the computers and software to run the system.