The next step is for agencies to order  services. These  advantages—obtaining reliable, high-quality telecommunications services  at low cost—increase in importance as the federal government moves to  deliver more information and services electronically. Conclusions

Despite progress, the government did not meet its deadlines for transition  to FTS2001 and has not yet completed this effort. The deadline was missed  for numerous reasons: a lack of sufficient information to effectively  oversee and manage this complex transition, slowness in completing all the  contract modifications needed to add transition-critical services to the  FTS2001 contracts, slowness of some customer agencies to order FTS2001  services, staffing shortfalls and billing problems on the part of FTS2001  contractors, and local exchange carriers’ difficulties providing facilities  and services on time. Until GSA addresses the outstanding issues impeding  transition and expeditiously completes this transition, it will be unable to  fully achieve its basic FTS2001 goals of ensuring the best service and  maximizing competition. The Administrator stated, however, that the report did  not reflect the success of the FTS2001 transition.
What GAO Found

Telecommunications services are increasingly critical to transforming the way the federal government does business; communicates internally and externally; and interacts with citizens, industry, and state, local, and foreign governments. Electronic government services based on reliable, secure, and cost-effective telecommunications can enable agencies to streamline the way they do business, reduce paperwork and delays, and increase operational efficiencies. It is important that a far-reaching program, such as the FTS2001 program, take full advantage of new services offered by industry; that agencies effectively and efficiently implement these telecommunications services to improve operations; and that the program be successfully implemented to maximize benefits to the taxpayers. Despite progress, the government did not meet its deadlines for transition to FTS2001 and has not yet completed this effort. The government missed its deadline for several reasons, including a lack of sufficient information to effectively oversee and manage this complex transition, slowness in completing all the contract modifications needed to add transition-critical services to the FTS2001 contracts, slowness of some customer agencies to order FTS2001 services, staffing shortfalls and billing problems on the part of FTS2001 contractors, and local exchange carriers' difficulties providing facilities and services on time. Until the General Services Administration addresses the outstanding issues impeding transition and expeditiously completes this transition, it will be unable to fully achieve its basic FTS2001 goals of ensuring the best service and maximizing competition.