Governor Kills $1.8B Telecom Consolidation Plan

ATLANTA-After the state spent $4.2 million developing a plan since 2001 to have a private contractor control all government and educational communications, Gov. Sonny Perdue has killed the proposal, questioning its economic, managerial and technical benefits. The Georgia Technology Authority accepted the governor’s recommendation.

Bidding for the 10-year, $1.8 billion contract were WorldCom, IBM and ConnectGA, a partnership of BellSouth, AT&T and EDS. The contract would have placed 500 state workers on the contractor’s payroll and would have been the largest contract ever awarded by Georgia.

The project would have consolidated all communications services under a single contract and ensured that all state agencies paid the same amount for services, such as long-distance and cellular phones. The state currently deals with several high-tech vendors to provide services for individual agencies.