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State Telecom Contract News - Who Can Participate for 2001
Message Posted September 28, 2000

General Availability Schedule of State Telecommunications Contract Delayed
--But, many schools and libraries will still be able to purchase from

contract starting July 1 through E-Rate--

As you know, in May, the state signed a five-year

contract with Adelphia Business Solutions to dramatically expand the

statewide public network infrastructure. The contract covers the

provisioning of local and long distance voice, data, video, basic digital

transport and Internet service for all state agencies. Public schools and

libraries are eligible to receive the very competitive pricing benefits of

the contract, and availability timing will be based upon both the

infrastructure construction and state government transition schedule.

In June, there was a schedule released with

estimated dates of school and library deployments based on the construction

schedule and using the area code and local exchange of an entity's telephone

number. Due to an expansion of the scope and complexity of the installation

to the state agencies than was originally anticipated, the schedule of

availability to Category 3 Users, including public schools and public

libraries, has had to be delayed by one year. Therefore if the original

date of availability in your area was Oct. 2001, it is likely that

availability will not be until Oct. 2002. If Adelphia and the state's

Office of Information Technology find that they are able to be meet a more

aggressive timeline, they will do so.

Implications for E-rate; Many schools will begin July 1, 2001

Although the revised availability schedule will not list any area as being

serviceable before July 1, 2002, Adelphia WILL be selectively responding to

individual Year 4 E-rate 470 postings of schools and libraries that are

located in certain areas of the state. In doing so, local Adelphia

representatives will monitor the E-rate web site closely this fall and

contact applicants directly to ask whether they would like to purchase

services from Adelphia at the state contract rates. If the applicant is

interested, Adelphia will guarantee service beginning July 1, 2001 -- the

start of the E-rate funding year. The schools and libraries that likely

will be contacted regarding their 470 posting will be located in the Rate

Centers of the following areas: Erie, Philadelphia, State College,

Scranton, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Lancaster, York, and Allentown.

Generally, if an entity can make a non-toll call to a city on this list,

they are in that city's 'rate center.'

If you are contacted by Adelphia in response to a

470 posting, you will want to make sure you ask for the state contract

pricing. In addition, you likely will want to sign a multi-year contract,

beginning July 1, 2002 and ending on a date mutually agreed to be the entity

and Adelphia. If you sign a multi-year contract, you will be exempt from

filing a 470 for the duration of your contact with Adelphia. The local

contract you sign will be the contract you list on your Form 471, including

the date that contract was signed, and the beginning and ending dates of the

local contract. In other words, even though it's a state contract that set

the prices, you will have to have a local contract with Adelphia for service

starting, ending dates, and any Service Level Agreements or other terms,

such as billing. Pricing will be based on (and no higher than) the state

government contract, but will be restated in each local contract.

We will be covering this issue at the 5 regional

E-rate workshops for Veterans and the 3 regional E-rate workshops for

Beginners in October and early November (see www.L2L.org for registration

information.) If you are located in one of the identified rate centers and

have specific questions relating to Adelphia services or prices, please

contact Linda Battersby at Adelphia at (717) 505-1119 or via e-mail:

linda.battersby@adelphiacom.com.

While we realize that the delay in deployment of the

Adelphia contracted services and prices is a small setback , the fact that

several schools and libraries will be able to benefit by July 1 on a

case-by-case basis via E-rate is a huge step forward in deploying these

services throughout the entire state. Together with E-rate discounts, the

state telecom contract pricing will likely bring down the cost of these

services dramatically.

Julie Tritt Schell

Executive Policy Specialist

Pennsylvania Department of Education

333 Market Street, 10th Floor

Harrisburg, PA 17126

(717) 705-4486

(717) 787-7222 - fax

jtritt@state.pa.us

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