The Western States Contracting Alliance has designed a contracting
vehicle so states can get better rates on wireless phones and PDAs.
The Western States Contracting Alliance has put into place a
wireless purchasing contract designed to save money for states and
localities across the United States.
In a new contract that went into effect Jan. 1, WSCA has developed a
contracting vehicle that can be used by states, cities, counties and
other municipal entities to get favorable rates on wireless phones,
data devices and PDAs, as well as on voice and data wireless services.
"WSCA is a loosely formed cooperative of 15 Western states and
we have banded together to procure on a larger scale to get better
pricing," said Greg Smith, administrator of the Nevada State Purchasing
Division.
Smith, a vice chairman of WSCA, took the lead in Nevada's
management of the wireless contract. The state of Nevada is the lead
state in the wireless procurement, and involves other states to make
sure that the overall contract meets the needs of all members.
"Each of the state organizations contributes in some way,"
Smith said. "We do the procurement. We let everyone know that we're
doing this on behalf of all of the states."
All four major wireless providers, Cingular,
T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint, were represented in the contract. The
contract provides for pre-negotiated prices for equipment and services
for any state or municipality, and in some ways resembles the federal
government's well-known GSA contracts.
"When we do something like this, Nevada does the original
document and we circulate it to the other states to make sure that
everything is covered," Smith said.
"Cingular has the largest share," said Chris Hill, vice
president of government solutions for Cingular Wireless. Hill said that
the WSCA award to Cingular is worth about $2 billion, and is Cingular's
largest contract.
"We are supporting 41 states where we have signed with
participating addendums. It's our primary contracting vehicle for state
and local governments," Hill added.
Hill said that this contract is for the full range of
Cingular's products. This includes all Cingular handsets, PDAs
including the new 8525 and Blackjack, and BlackBerrys and Treos.
The WSCA contract will also provide discounts on wireless
access cards and on wireless service, where governments will receive a
20 percent discount. Hill said that the discount on handsets will
depend on the handset.
Wireless providers to push smart-phone apps, content in 2007. Click here to read more.
Hill also said that Cingular is offering to bundle
software from NetMotion Wireless, to provide mobile VPN services with
persistent connections to governments that need that.
He said that in addition to states, cities and counties his
company would offer the same pricing to state universities and other
governmental organizations.
"The pricing that we received across the board is substantially
better than anyone could have received on their own any other way,"
Smith said.
He noted that while state and local governments are permitted
to use the WSCA contract, they are not required to do so. "Each state
has the ability to add on smaller companies that may serve their
areas," Smith said.
WSCA also awards multi-state contracts for a wide variety of
other products and services including such things as desktop and laptop
computers. The new wireless contract is available to state and local
governments as of Jan. 1.
Check out eWEEK.com's
Mobile & Wireless Center for the latest news, reviews and analysis on mobile and wireless computing.
Email
Print
Wayne Rash is a Senior Analyst for eWEEK Labs and runs the magazine's Washington Bureau. Prior to joining eWEEK as a Senior Writer on wireless technology, he was a Senior Contributing Editor and previously a Senior Analyst in the InfoWorld Test Center. He was also a reviewer for Federal Computer Week and Information Security Magazine. Previously, he ran the reviews and events departments at CMP's InternetWeek.
