We reported on the General Services Administration's $20 billion Networx Universal program a few weeks ago, now the GSA announced that AT&T, Qwest and Verizon have won the right to bid on the contracts, while Sprint was left off the list. Sprint has providing telecom services to the federal government for nearly 20 years. The GSA is allowed to spend upward to $68.1 billion for the entire network upgrade, which also includes a separate pool of contracts called Networx Enterprise. Winning bidders for that initiative will be announced in May.
The news, of course, is big for Qwest, which is far smaller than its Networx rivals, AT&T and Verizon. The three will compete for bids on 135 out of 184 federal agencies worldwide, including the Treasure Department and Homeland Security.
For more on the Networx initiative:
- check out this article [1] from the WSJ (sub. req.)
Links:
[1] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117518171619753249.html?mod=telecommunications_primary_hs