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Sprint Signs A No-Bid Contract With the City, Joining Snapple
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CITY SPRINTS TO AWARD $2.5M PACT
By CARL CAMPANILE (NY POST, May 10, 2004) The Department of Education has signed a no-bid $2.5 million contract with Sprint Corp. to provide long-distance phone services - declining to entertain proposals from other companies in one of the nation's most competitive industries, The Post has learned. The sole-source contract for long-distance calls has raised eyebrows from critics who complain the number of no-bid deals has increased dramatically under the administration of Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein. But Klein spokeswoman Margie Feinberg defended the Sprint deal, which is actually a renewal of a prior no-bid contract awarded to the firm, as a bargain. Under the agreement, Sprint agreed to cut the cost of service by 27 percent from the prior contract. The extension runs from July 1 of this year through June 30, 2006. And she said the department is working on a proposal to put long-distance service out to bid down the road. "If we didn't extend the contract there would have been a massive disruption in long-distance service," Feinberg said. Verizon, another phone-service provider that has other contracts with the department, declined to take issue with the Sprint deal. |