Federal disconnects of existing telecom contracts in favor of the Networx contract now stand at 86 percent, said Karl Krumbholz, director of General Services Administration network services programs, while speaking at a May 19 event hosted by AFFIRM in Washington, D.C.

If nothing else, the pace of disconnects has been consistent--In a March 31 blog post, Krumbholz said 83 percent of FTS 2001 services had been disconnected, noting GSA was moving at a pace of 3 percent per month. For the next contract vehicle, NS2020, the process must move faster, said Krumbholz; "We know that we need to start the dialogue now."

GSA is working with industry groups to get feedback on NS2020, Krumbholz said, adding that GSA has hired consulting firm Deloitte to survey chief information officers and other stakeholders. "We'll start turning this data, this information into requirements," said Krumbholz. "There's a lot of pieces that are starting to come together."