CSD in line for $30M contract

CSD in line for $30M contract

Communication Service for the Deaf in Sioux Falls has been notified that it probably will be awarded a $30 million contract to continue operating the equipment distribution program for the Deaf and Disabled Telecommunications Program in California.

Last week, the California Public Utilities Commission posted an intent to award the contract to CSD. The state's Department of General Services still needs to approve it, however, said Christopher Chow, spokesman for the California PUC.

The approval would renew until 2013 with an option to extend through 2015 a contract that CSD has had with California for almost a decade, said Christopher Soukup, senior vice president of CSD Contact Centers.

It would allow the company to continue operating the contact and distribution center on behalf of the California Telephone Access Program and the state PUC, which overseas the program.

The program employs about 100 people, 75 of whom work in Stockton, Calif. The contact center receives calls from deaf and hard of hearing people who would like to receive assistive communications technology such as amplified phones. CSD processes the applications, verifies the hearing loss, helps them select the necessary equipment and ships the equipment to the person's home, Soukup said. The program has more than 600,000 residents in its database.

"We are very excited about this particular contract due to the size and scope of the program we are supporting as well as its close relationship to the mission of our organization," Soukup said. "A significant part of CSD's reason for being is to elevate the level of communications access for deaf and hard of hearing consumers, and this is fundamentally what is being accomplished for California residents through this program."

CSD will partner with San Jose Distribution Services for disseminating the equipment.

"San Jose Distribution Services Inc. is extremely proud and honored to be able to continue providing distribution logistics services for such a worthwhile state program that positively affects the lives of hundreds of thousands of Californians," said Gary Minardi, San Jose Distribution Services president.