AT&T lands IRS toll-free service contract

AT&T Corp.'s government unit won a $180 million Internal Revenue Service contract to provide toll-free 800 services for the 130 million calls made each year to the IRS.

The five-year contract was awarded to AT&T through FTS2001, the General Services Administration's long-distance contract, to which the company was added last year.

The IRS 800 number is used by taxpayers to check on refunds, to obtain employee identification numbers, and to ask about tax laws, balances due and other issues. In addition to the toll-free service, the company will provide network announcements, transfer capabilities, routing controls, on-line monitoring and other capabilities.

AT&T Government Solutions was the incumbent on the contract and won a competitive bid for the new deal.

GSA added AT&T to the FTS2001 contract through the agency's "crossover" program, which allows companies on GSA's Metropolitan Area Acquisition contracts to "cross over" and be added to the national long-distance contract.

Headquartered in Bedminster, N.J., AT&T had revenue of $37.8 billion in fiscal 2002. The company employs almost 118,000 people worldwide.