Some federal agencies might face the prospect of losing telecom service once their current FTS 2001 Bridge contracts expire in May and June.

Agency transition onto Networx, the General Services Administration telecommunications contract vehicle already meant to have completely replaced the 12-year old FTS 2001 vehicle is now 83 percent complete, according to Karl Krumbholz, GSA's director of network services programs.

Krumbholz blogged about the transition rate on March 31, the last day for agencies to notify GSA if they wanted to make use of a one-year sole source extensions of their current FTS 2001 Bridge contracts.

But 18 agencies have not completed their Networx transition nor notified GSA of their intent to use the sole source extensions, "either because they do not need the continuity of service or because they have simply not elected to inform GSA of their requirements," Krumbholz said.

In a GSA Networx Transition Update dated March 2011, Maynard Crum, the Networx transition & customer support director, warned agencies that GSA will start issuing disconnect orders to telecom providers in April on behalf of any agency that failed to contact GSA by March 31 over their sole source extension intentions.

An April 3 request to GSA for further information such as whether an agencies face imminent disconnection from the FTS 2001 Bridge--and if so, which ones--hasn't been returned; we'll update if GSA responds.

Meanwhile, preparations for the Networx successor vehicle, NS2020, appear to be continuing. One criticism about Networx, that it takes a long time to transition to, might not necessarily have reason to change with NS2020, Krumbholz said in another blog post.

Government acquisition, Krumbholz wrote, is capable of delivering any two of the following three desirable traits: High quality; low cost; and fast delivery. With Networx, GSA decided to go for low cost and high quality, he added.

"As we look forward to NS2020, we certainly want to emphasize speed of delivery, but I still believe in the business of delivering critical network services infrastructure to the Government, we must not sacrifice the other two to achieve it," he added.

For more:
- read a March 31 blog post by Karl Krumbholz on the FTS2001-Networx transition
- read another blog post by Krumbholz on government acquisition
- download a March 2011 Networx Transition Update (.pdf)

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After Networx comes NS2020
GSA signs sole source extension of FTS 2001 Bridge