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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