Washington area telecom contract to move forward
Washington area telecom contract to move forward
A contract providing federal agencies in the Washington area with more telecommunications services at lower costs can move forward, following a Comptroller General decision Friday denying a bid protest.
A public version of the full decision will not be released for several weeks, but Dan Gordon, associate general counsel for procurement law at the General Accounting Office, confirmed that the Comptroller General denied a protest filed by New York-based Winstar Communications alleging that the contract was awarded unfairly. That means Bell Atlantic Federal will soon start getting federal agencies on to the Washington Interagency Telecommunications System contract, or WITS2001.
The General Services Administration awarded the WITS2001 contract to Bell Atlantic in January. The contract could be worth $1.4 billion over eight years.
Bell Atlantic has held the current contract for local service since 1989. The new contract offers lower prices. WITS2001 will continue to offer voice and circuit-switched data services but will also include more transmission services, switched multi-megabit data service, frame relay and asynchronous transfer mode data services, voice and video teleconferencing, Internet access and telecommunications equipment.
GSA spokesman Bill Bearden said the agency is pleased that the Comptroller General affirmed the WITS2001 contract award.
Federal agencies in the Washington area are anxious to move forward with the transition from the current local contract to WITS2001, said Barbara L. Connor, president of Bell Atlantic Federal. The company is working on a transition plan to make the switchover as smooth as possible, Connor said.
"Planning is key here," she said.
Winstar officials would not comment on the Comptroller General decision.
The decision does not lock Winstar out of the Washington market for good; GSA's arrangement with Bell Atlantic Federal is exclusive for only one year. After that, GSA can accept bids from other companies for local telecommunications services.