A D.C. Council member this week chided the mayor’s administration for developing a telecommunications utility that has yet to realize any promised savings — and is costing the District millions of dollars more than expected.
Council Member Kwame Brown on Monday challenged the entire philosophy behind DC-Net, the District’s internal fiber-optic voice and data network, which is specifically designed to shift the city away from Verizon. He offered his opinion as City Administrator Robert Bobb testified on the need for $6.8 million “to cover a shortfall in revenue” in the two-year-old system.
“It’s just impossible for the District government to run a telephone service better than the private sector,” Brown said.
The District will have to keep throwing more money into DC-Net in the future, Brown argued, to keep the technology up to date and to retain consultants with the expertise to move the system forward.
DC-Net was launched in 2004, but implementation by the Office of the Chief Technology Officer has been slow, Bobb said. Only 13,000 of 20,000 projected phone and data lines have been connected, he said, “well below the level at which DC-Net was designed to operate and, therefore, above the economic break-even point.”
To reduce the cost-per-line and break even, Bobb said, the city must connect 6,000 more lines, which won’t be done until next year. He blamed the delay on disputes with equipment providers, re-wiring difficulties and “major changes in the business environment.”
Meanwhile, the District is paying more than ever for Verizon’s services. The company started charging the city higher rates when its contract with D.C. ended last year, perhaps explaining why the District’s costs for telephony are expected to jump from $26.5 million this year to $32.3 million in fiscal year 2007.
Bobb said the administration plans a summer review of DC-Net’s staffing, rates, operational structure, service delivery and long-term business strategies.
