Services Coverage. 84 The scope of this resultant contract is to provide telecommunications services to the 85 Government for the life of this contract including both local services (described in this 86 Request for Qualification Statement [RQS]) and long-distance services (described in the 87 FTS2001 Request for Proposal [RFP]). 88 Figure C.1.2-1 depicts the scope of MAA services within the context of the entire FTS 89 Program. MAA mandatory services include local loop, which includes local switching and 90 associated features, and local transport (both switched and dedicated) between terminating 91 locations within the MAA service area. MAA mandatory services also include both 92 switched and dedicated access to Interexchange Carriers (IXCs). Until allowed by law and 93 regulation to provide full IXC switched access services, the contractor shall support IXC 94 switched access by providing the customer organizations the ability to choose the 95 Government-specified FTS2000/2001 pre-subscribed interexchange carrier (PIC) for long 96 distance services. When allowed by law and regulation and when it is in the best interest of 97 the Government, any MAA contractor, upon MAA contract award, may provide full IXC 98 switched access services, anywhere as defined in the FTS2001 RFP for mandatory service, 99 features, performance, and interface requirements. IXC dedicated access shall be provided 100 using MAA Dedicated Transmission Service (DTS). The term IXC transport is used to 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 IXC Access Local Transport IXC Transport Local Loops 109 depict the connection between the IXC POPs. When allowed by law and regulation, after the FTS2001 contract(s) one-year forbearance period, and when it is in the best interest of the Government, any MAA contractor may provide IXC transport services, as defined in the FTS2001 RFP for mandatory services, features, performance, and interface requirements.
Services Coverage. The coverage of services provides another opportunity for the EU and US to expand their commitments. The US bases its coverage of services in the GPA and its FTAs on the use of a negative list. The EU has to date used a positive list. To align their commitments to the extent possible, they should consider basing their services coverage on a negative list.35 That would provide an important foundation for them to seek similar services coverage in the next round of GPA negotiations. Use of a negative list ensures more comprehensive coverage than a positive list, because it means that when new services, such as cloud computing, become available, they are automatically covered. By contrast, when a positive list is used, a new service is covered only if it fits within a category that is already covered. Since it is not always easy to fit a new service into existing categories, the issue of coverage of a new service can be subject to disputes. In addition, the EU and the US should seek as comparable coverage of service categories as possible. One area that warrants close consideration is telecommunications. Until the revision of the GPA, the EU did not cover all telecommunications services. In the revision, the EU offers all such services, but conditions access on reciprocal coverage. The US continued its limited offering of telecommunications services, opening only enhanced or value-added services. The description of its covered telecommunications services has not changed since the GPA entered into force in 1996. Yet, there have been significant advances in telecommunications in the intervening two decades. Thus, the US should re-examine its coverage of such services with the aim of updating and broadening its coverage. It could exclude specific services as needed for national security or other purposes.
Services Coverage
