The Metropolitan Area Acquisition (MAA) program was designed to provide government agencies the immediate benefits of local market competition as a result of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. GSA's objective is to sustain the significant price reductions achieved in other selected metropolitan areas and provide a flexible contract vehicle to promote continued competition for lower prices and quality services.

GSA initiated the MAA program under the overall strategy to foster so-called, “ruthless competition” for government telecommunications services. The MAA strategy was designed to lead the charge and take maximum advantage of the 1996 Telecommunications Act's vision of establishing fully competitive local markets for telecommunications services.

The MAA program spearheads GSA's strategy to market and deliver competitive and innovative local telecommunications service packages to existing customers as well as to a broader range of potential customers who will soon be able to leverage MAA's multi-tiered, customer-focused services to meet their specific needs.

Metropolitan Area Acquisition (MAA) Program Features include:

• Four base years + four one-year options
• Fixed prices guarantees lowest rates for the life of the contract
• 25 awarded cities
• Comprehensive range of local service offerings including standard commercial telephone service and other data services.
• Free local number portability
• Feature-rich voice services
• Eliminates all per-minute usage charges for government-to-government calls
• Six flexible service delivery point options allow agencies a wide range of service choices from agency-managed to contractor-managed turnkey services.
• Comprehensive support services including ordering, billing, network troubleshooting, repair capabilities, infrastructure inventory, and more.