[comm] Communications Meeting

[Gareth Hunt]

Guys,

Reminder: We will meet on Tuesdays at 10:30 EST (8:30 MST) via video.
          Meetings will be held as needed.

I'd like to bring you all up to date on the status of the intranet contract,
and to solicit comments and suggestions how to proceed.

Cheers,
Gareth.
===============================================================================
FTS2000EE (FTS2000 2nd extension, our present intranet contract) is available
only through the end of 2001.  It seems that AT&T has come down somewhat in
their bid to continue the intranet service, but not nearly as much as we had
hoped.  The Monthly Recurring Costs (MRC) are as follows:

  Service        Old MRC   New MRC   Increase

  Access/Port   7,737.75  12,763.31   64.95%
  PVC           2,045.75   1,117.67  -45.37%
               =========  =========  =======
  Total         9,783.50  13,880.98   41.88%

(These are comparing base charges, and do not include taxes and management
fees).

In total, the cost would be $50k more per year instead of $100k if we stayed
with FTS2000EE, so I suppose this is progress.  Regretfully, however, it seems
as if this is not nearly enough of an improvement to warrant staying with AT&T
over the long haul.

Note that the total Access/Port cost includes $2,448.- for the DTS circuit
between Florida and St. Croix.  Presently we pay $882.- for that hop.

The quoted costs do drop over a five-year period.  In the fifth year, the
proposed costs would only be ~$25k (22%) above last year's prices.

The Service Installation Charges (SIC) are waived provided that the services
"are maintained for at least a twelve- (12) month period.  SICs will apply to
all new services."  I assume that this means that we can initiate the contract
for 12 months with no termination fees at the end.

There are a couple of oddities with the bid, including the fact that Port and
PVC charges quotes use "AT&T best Government rates," whereas Access charges are
based upon "AT&T Commercial price points."

We have come up with a couple of questions for GRCI (the AT&T division bidding
on this):

1. Why are Access charges not based on Government rates?  Can this be improved
   upon?

2. Will we receive credit from FTS2000EE billing if we accept billing?

3. Are there any alternatives to the DTS with the associated high cost for the
   St. Croix link?

Our default position is that we should convert to this service immediately, but
then begin the process of re-bidding the entire network to all vendors.

(Btw, Gene received an initial quote of ~$8k MRC for this link from Sprint, so
it's not obvious, until we get formal competitive quotes, that changing to
MCI or Sprint under FTS2001 will gain us anything.)