And you thought your phone bill was high. The Navy is paying about $4 billion a year for calls, according to Defense News. And not surprisingly, there is a whole lot of padding in that tab.
A check of telephone bills in the Jacksonville, Fla., area “found that when we have a digital receipt for a phone bill in the area…we are being overcharged 30 percent,” deputy chief of naval operations Vice Adm. Mark Edwards told a group of military-industrial insiders at a recent conference.
Telephone service with no digital receipt showed overcharges of 18 percent, he added.
The Navy’s top IT official said he wasn’t accusing telephone companies, but he just might not let it slide. “What I’m saying is: It’s my money and I want it back. And we’re going to get it back,” he said, to some chuckles.
By recouping 30 percent of the $4 billion tab over the five-year defense plan, “we could build another carrier, just on the phone bill,” noted Edwards, a former ship and carrier battle group commander. “It won’t be quite that easy, but we’re working it.”
And it might not end there. Edwards wants the Navy to change course by replacing traditional landlines for VOIP, or “voice over IP,” communications, he said. “It would save us over 24 percent the first year” and 24 percent the second year, he estimated.
That news conference document has a lot of other interesting tech trend info for the Navy.
If the navy got vonage, it could have unlimited calling for $25/month. Just FYI.
I agree with Harry Truman — ripping off the government in war time is treason.
These days just it’s just considered business as usual.
That’s not the navy’s phone bill…
That’s the US Citizen’s phone bill…
Somebody better get customer service on the phone and start working this out.
i wonder who they go though?
that pdf was interesting – im suprised they had the balls to mention eds’s nmci project- the biggest waste of money, they could get their internal IT & netops people to deal with it if their resources werent stretched so thin – and also if the govt didnt rely on contractors to get the job done ( I worked on a few nmci contracts, its a complete waste of money)
What I don’t understand is the Navy has known about being overcharged for awhile now and is negotiating to get our money back ???
Let’s see, 30% of $4 Billion plus whatever the Army and Air Force get overcharged for would equal enough for a healthy pay raise for the military.
They could save a bundle by having a disabled person order the phone service….it’s called Universal Lifeline Telephone Service, lowers your basic bill to less than half the normal charge…..thats a lot of money.
Universal Lifeline is Califronia only. Damn.
Just another day in Bush’s polluted, dysfunctional government. I suppose the only thing we can do about is laugh and tell jokes about it.