NIGP 98577: Telephone Systems and Portable Phones (Including Pagers) Rental or Lease

NIGP 98577 Telephone Systems and Portable Phones (Including Pagers) Rental or Lease, an Item code, encompasses cloud-hosted unified communications platforms, inmate telephone and video visitation systems, and cooperative-purchasing vehicles for network equipment and wireless services that state and local governments are soliciting to replace legacy on-premises infrastructure or expand telecommunications capacity across multiple facilities. Recent opportunities show school districts, counties, junior colleges, and state agencies moving toward UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) solutions, managed inmate communication systems that generate revenue through commissary integration, and statewide cooperative contracts covering cellular, pager, and satellite services alongside traditional phone-system migration projects.

Issuing bodies include independent school districts (Temple ISD in Texas), county corrections departments (Sauk County, Wisconsin), community colleges (Wharton County Junior College in Texas), regional purchasing cooperatives serving multiple member agencies (Region 7 Purchasing Cooperative in Texas), and state information-resources departments (Texas DIR). Recent solicitations center in Texas and Wisconsin. Representative opportunities include Temple ISD's RFI 003-27 (due September 8, 2026) seeking fully cloud-hosted UCaaS guidance for 1,000 endpoints across 18 facilities with a March 2028 implementation target; Sauk County's RFP 202601SCJ (due August 26, 2026) for a turnkey inmate telephone, video visitation, kiosk, and tablet system where the vendor bears all equipment and maintenance costs and the county receives compensation on gross revenues; Wharton County Junior College's RFP 26_00002 (due July 8, 2026) for cloud-based phone-system migration across five campus locations with approximately 550 existing Shoretel and Mitel endpoints; and Texas DIR's indefinite-quantity DIRCPOTXA610 (due July 23, 2026) covering cellular, wireless, pager, and satellite services for all state agencies, structured as a multiple-award contract with no minimum guarantees and a 2.00% administrative fee recovered through customer pricing.