"Where we are right now is not where we thought we'd be when we awarded the contract," admits Karl Krumbholz, director of Network Services Programs in the Office of Integrated Technology Services at GSA's Federal Acquisition Service. "The agencies are now saying that all of their orders are going to be in by April 1, 2010."

Carriers say GSA's Networx sales figures are too conservative, and that they have won three or four times more Networx business than GSA is reporting. But the carriers agree that the Networx transition is running way behind schedule, and that they haven't earned anywhere near the revenues that they originally envisioned.

"The transition is much more complex than [GSA] had anticipated, and as a result it is behind what they projected," says Bill White, vice president of federal programs with Sprint. "It's behind the pace for the FTS 2001 contract....Everyone thought it would move a lot faster."

"Networx, from an implementation perspective, is very behind," agreed Diana Gowen, senior vice president and general manager of Qwest government services, in a written response to questions. "We will have enough years on the back end of the contract to start seeing the implementation of new solutions, technologies and a bigger spend on Networx. Failure-no, but soooo....slow."

Despite the Networx program's slow start, GSA and the carriers remain optimistic that the deal will eventually be worth $20 billion or more as agencies migrate all of their telecom services off FTS 2001 onto Networx. They hope to grow wireless traffic, sell additional managed security services and attract more military customers.