Krumbholz: GSA might create new wireless government-wide contract

The General Services Administration is contemplating creation of a new government-wide contract for wireless communications, said Karl Krumbholz, GSA's director of network services programs, in an interview. You can read a full transcript of FierceGovernmentIT's Q&A with Krumbholz here.

Most agencies buy wireless services through the GSA schedules program, Krumbholz said, meaning that the government as a whole doesn't combine its spending power. Although the schedules program, through a contractual clause known as "most favored customer pricing," aims to get the lowest price possible for commercial goods and services, most companies refuse to offer deep discounts without a guarantee of volume sales, a condition the schedules program cannot fulfill by itself.

"There's been an acknowledgment that management of the wireless services, the prices, can be better accomplished if the government--like we do on Networx--could put our volume together," Krumbholz said, referring to GSA's set of comprehensive telecom services contracts.   

Setting up a Networx-like contract for wireless communications would require agencies to come up with a common set of requirements and a pledge to use a contract built on those requirements, Krumbholz said.

"If we can't bring enough volume, then we'll continue to pay the same onesies, twosies prices that we're paying now," he said.

Members of a requirements working group should start meeting to develop requirements even as agencies might be looking to develop individual contracts of their own, Krumbholz said. The Office of Management and Budget might weigh in on the matter, he added.

"Unless we get some strong support from OMB and the CIO Council and a unified approach to the marketplace, I don't think it's going to be possible to meet all of our objectives," Krumbholz said.

For more:
- read the full transcript of FierceGovernmentIT's interview with Krumbholz

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