Revolt Of Uncle Sam's Paper Pushers

AT&T Co. and US Sprint Communications Co. were hailed in December 1988 as the winners in a battle for one of the largest nonmilitary government projects in US history - replacing the federal government's old telephone network. It was said that the $25-billion, 10-year contract could be very profitable for the companies. However, the project, called FTS-2000, may not be profitable after all. AT&T and Sprint hope to derive more than half the $25 billion from selling such expensive options as electronic mail and videoconferencing. Such services are commonplace to business customers, but they are high technology to risk-averse bureaucrats. To overcome the bureaucrats' resistance to change, AT&T and Sprint have assembled many salespeople and engineers to mount a hard sell. At the moment, however, government procurement officials still are confused over what the system can do and why they should buy it. When completed, the system should save the government an estimated $200 million a year in phone bills.