New Wireless 'Family Plan' for U.S. Government Saves $300 Million

WASHINGTON, May 22, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, the General Services Administration (GSA) Acting Administrator joined by executives from AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon announced the award of a new government-wide blanket purchase agreement (BPA) that allows the government to better manage wireless spending by consolidating service plans and centralizing management. The agreements, which will save $300 million over the next five years, is a significant accomplishment for the federal government because it capitalizes on more than a billion dollars that the government spends each year on wireless.

"By buying in bulk, we're buying once and we're buying well," said GSA Acting Administrator Dan Tangherlini. "This common sense approach allows us to do what families and businesses across America do every day. We're driving down costs, increasing efficiency and improving service and operations. These agreements give agencies the ability to pool minutes, order plans and devices more efficiently and have greater visibility into their purchases."

A single government-wide option with the ability to pool minutes is a first for the federal government. Now instead of paying additional overage fees, agencies will have access to a pool of unused minutes within their wireless plan, enabling them to consolidate minutes and save money.  

Federal agencies spend an estimated $1.3 billion on wireless services and mobile devices annually. Until now, wireless purchasing has been fragmented among multiple buying channels resulting in individual bureaus, departments and operating divisions across the government managing more than 4,000 wireless agreements and 800 wireless plans from various carriers. This initiative will greatly reduce this duplication and inefficiency in wireless purchases, which will also shrink costs.  State and local governments are also eligible to us the contract to purchase service plans and devices to save money and better consolidate and manage wireless spending.

Today's announcement is a key deliverable of the President's Digital Government Strategy aiming to increase adoption of mobile technology across government, and is being released as part of the one-year celebration of the Strategy launch. This work is also part of a larger effort led by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to drive strategic sourcing across government. In December 2012, OMB established the Strategic Sourcing Leadership Council to encourage agencies to leverage their buying power on procurements whenever possible, and is looking to GSA to deliver more new government-wide solutions in FY '13 and FY '14.

Joe Jordan, OMB Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy noted, "This is an important day for our government wide strategic sourcing efforts. We applaud GSA's work on this initiative, and look forward to working with agencies as they take advantage of these new and innovative agreements that will help save taxpayer dollars."

"Sprint is pleased to participate in this contract and believes that the GSA did an exceptional job leaning on industry and government expertise to pull it together, said Sharon Montgomery, Sprint vice president – federal & public sector. "For years, Sprint Federal has focused on maximizing the Agency's spend and management capabilities. This Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative (FSSI) will ensure that those sorts of capabilities are available to all agencies and that every dollar spent on wireless technology is maximized."

"As budgets tighten, our customers want more flexibility to find much needed cost savings with wireless services and devices," said Kay Kapoor, president, AT&T Government Solutions. "This new agreement will allow AT&T to offer more value and options to our government customers under one contract, combining the strength of our wireless network with superior service plans and secure devices that meet their specific needs."

"From the delivery of vital citizen services to protecting the homeland, mobility is the catalyst driving transformation of day-to-day federal operations, said Susan Zeleniak, senior vice president, public sector markets, Verizon Enterprise Solutions. "Under the GSA's Wireless FSSI agreement, federal agencies will benefit from a broad array of advanced mobility solutions, including machine-to-machine and data services, powered by the reliability, speed and reach of Verizon's 4G LTE network.  These services will help agencies boost productivity and accelerate information sharing."  

To date, GSA has saved agencies more than $330 million since 2010 through four strategically sourced contracts, which include: office supplies, domestic delivery, telecommunications expense management services and print management.  

SOURCE U.S. General Services Administration