[9223] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Solicitation - Who's calling the Tune?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Gordon Cook)
Thu Dec 23 00:52:38 1993
From: cook@path.net (Gordon Cook)
Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1993 21:51:57 PST
To: com-priv@psi.com
Here is a quote from a document I received under FOIA from NSF:
"At the February 2, 1993 Congressional hearings before the House Subcommittee on
Science, Mitchell Kapor, representing the Electronic Frontier Foundation and
CIX, testified that, although NSF's original solicitation spoke of 155 Mbps
service as experimental, both Sprint and Metropolitan Fiber Systems stood ready
to provide the service at rates lower than NSF could."
A Feb 3rd Communications Daily article is cited... I'd bet its by Brock Meeks.
Brings some questions to my mind. Sounds like Mitch Kapor is testifying that
1. 155 Mgbs service for VBNS is commercially available of the shelf and, if the
gov't buys it, it ought to be by contract rather than cooperative agreement.
and
2. that Sprint and MFS have shown they could deliver it to the US government
for **less** than NSF has said it is prepared to pay in the solicitation.
Point 2 is not stated in quite such explicit terms, but this certainly seems to
be implied in the above quote. Can someone shed some light on this? Can anyone
find Mitch's testimony? Is Mitch reading this? Or someone with kapor
enterprises? If so would they speak out and clarify what was said and meant?
Certainly I don't recall any significant treatment of this in the press. Are
there some exculpating factors that aren't otherwise starkly apparent? If the
private sector can do this for less, what possible reason could there be for
Wolff's pressing ahead with this choice? And if this interpretation is accurate,
it would appear that the NSF has license to openly WASTE taxpayer dollars in
these times of scarcity. This smells like a pork barrel. I am receiving
suggestions from MULTIPLE sources that check out with the responses of still
other that the intent within DNCRI is to award the NAPS and VBNS to MCI and ANS.
What is DRIVING this Juggernaught that is coming out of the DNCRI part of CISE
at NSF? Where and by whom and for what reasons are these seemingly irrational
policy decisions being made?
