United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2002-04-04 monographic deposited born digital GA 1.13:GAO-02-325 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-325 P0b002ee180395be6 f:d02325 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-325 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-325 GAO-02-325 Competitive procurement Contract administration Cost control Federal procurement Fees Government contracts Prices and pricing Telecommunication Telecommunication industry Federal Telecommunications System 2001 FTS 2001 GSA Metropolitan Area Acquisition Program Other Written Product S2001 Telecommunications: GSA Action Needs to Realize Benefits of Metropolitan Area Acquisition Program (04-APR-02, GAO-02-325). The Metropolitan Area Acquisition (MAA) program provides local telecommunications services to federal agencies in certain U.S. cities. The General Services Administration (GSA) began the program in 1997 to achieve immediate, substantial, and sustained price reductions for local telecommunications for agencies; to expand their choices of high-quality services; and to encourage cross-agency sharing of resources. Service providers that are awarded contracts under the program are allowed to compete for GSA's FTS2001 long distance service contracts, so that federal agencies may potentially acquire end-to-end local and long distance telecommunications services from one source. Only 5 of the 19 metropolitan areas that were scheduled to switch from existing services to MAA services by or before March 1, 2002, have done so. Although the program was intended to take advantage of emerging competition in the local telecommunications market, it has been beset by implementation challenges, including access and use of building riser cabling, the transfer of local numbers between service providers, and a contractor's financial problems. On top of the cost of the contract services, GSA charges customer agencies fees that range from about nine to 97 percent or from $1.20 to $8.49 per line per month. Because GSA does not disclose its management fees unless asked, customer agencies do not necessarily have complete information to help them determine whether using GSA's full range of services is their most cost-effective approach. As of March 2002, GSA has allowed its MAA and FTS2001 contractors to offer services in both the local and long distance markets, a process termed "crossover." https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-325/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-325.htm GAO-02-325 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-325 Other Written Product GAO-02-325; Telecommunications: GSA Action Needs to Realize Benefits of Metropolitan Area Acquisition Program; Competitive procurement Contract administration Cost control Federal procurement Fees Government contracts Prices and pricing Telecommunication Telecommunication industry Federal Telecommunications System 2001 FTS 2001 GSA Metropolitan Area Acquisition Program Volume 100 Page 1783 100 Stat. 1783 Public Law 99-500