5 Telcoms Win GSA Contract

AT&T, Level 3, MCI, Qwest and Sprint were awarded telecommunications contracts worth up to $20 billion over 10 years by the US General Services Administration (GSA), the agency announced Thursday.

Under the contracts, known as Networx Enterprise -- the second of two acquisitions that comprise the Networx Program -- the companies will provide voice, Internet Protocol (IP), wireless, satellite and IP-centric services to 135 federal agencies. With its companion network, Networx Universal, Networx Enterprise will be used to upgrade the federal telecommunications system to an IP and multiprotocol label switching (MPLS)-based network compliant with Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) and other advances anticipated throughout its contract term.

“With this award and other recent awards, we’re bringing our customers the full range of options for telecommunication services available,” said GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service Commissioner Jim Williams.

The services provided by all Networx contracts include IP, security and management services necessary to design and deploy advanced IP networks. One example of the advanced IP capabilities available from Networx contractors is MPLS, which provides more flexibility to divert and route high priority traffic around link failures, congestion and bottlenecks. Networx also incorporates requirements for IPv6 to ensure that GSA customers can comply with OMB’s direction to move to this new standard by June 2008, "which makes available many more network addresses in anticipation of continued explosive growth of the Internet worldwide," the GSA said.

For more information, visit: www.gsa.gov/Portal/gsa/ep/channelView.do?pageTypeId=8199&channelPage=%2Fep%2Fchannel%2FgsaOverview.jsp&channelId=-16201