Word: phoning
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...phone mess is frustrating not only the Government but also the 14 corporations eager to snare a piece of the project, called FTS-2000, for Federal Telecommunications System. As the largest telecommunications contracting job in U.S. history, the proposed deal has attracted a Who's Who of bidders that includes AT&T, all seven local phone companies, MCI, GM/EDS, Boeing and Martin Marietta. The winning contractors will replace the old system with a showpiece network that will enable federal workers to transmit computer data, conduct video conferences at their desks, send facsimile images and even transfer funds. Says Fritz Ringling...
...replace that system for the first time since 1963, a deal worth up to a whopping $25 billion for the companies that will build the new network, Soni was destined to play a significant role. Instead he is embroiled in a byzantine scandal that is paralyzing the giant phone project. According to investigators for the GSA and a Senate committee, Soni leaked secret bidding information in a mysterious pattern that may take probers months or years to untangle...
...start the bidding over again on the $55 million contract. The installation of FTS-2000 could be delayed a year or two while the investigations take place. The Government has estimated that it will lose $100 million for every year that it must go on using its antiquated phone system. Says Ringling: "Government workers could end up using cans and string waiting for them to settle this." As for Soni, the enigmatic engineer faces potential criminal charges...
...however, many undecided Congressmen refused even to meet with the President. "I told him I'm going to make this decision in the quietness of my own thought processes," said Wes Watkins, an Oklahoma Democrat. "I've got a 17- year-old son," Watkins told Reagan during a tense phone call. "I want him to know what we stand for as a country and that we don't believe in carrying on covert and illegal activities." Watkins ultimately voted for the package...
...sight will be the largest control room (1,000 sq. ft., 100 TV monitors) ever put together in North America, and that facility is matched by a second fully manned control room on backup in case of failures. Virtually every phone line and broadcast system also has a backup duplicate. Though there are few new gewgaws, ABC is celebrating the Olympic debut of its tiny point-of-view camera, a 2-in., 2 3/4-oz. black box that can be attached to the front of a bobsled, a skier's boot, even (via a special wheeled apparatus) a hockey puck...