Second part of $20B government telecom award imminent
AT&T, Verizon among bidders on Networx Enterprise contract; Sprint Nextel has most to lose
By Carolyn Duffy Marsan, Network World, 05/29/07
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The General Services Administration plans to award Thursday the second half of a $20 billion program that will provide telecommunications services to U.S. federal agencies during the next 10 years.
Dubbed Networx Enterprise, the contract will provide a range of secure, IP, managed and wireless services. The bidders are AT&T, Qwest Communications, Verizon Business, Sprint Nextel and Level 3 Communications.
Networx FAQ
In March, the GSA awarded Networx Universal contracts to AT&T, Qwest and Verizon Business.
Networx is a 10-year program that will provide domestic and international telecommunications services including voice, data, video and wireless to the federal government. The program has an estimated value of $20 billion.
Washington, D.C., insiders say there is little buzz about the Networx Enterprise award due Thursday week.
"It’s a little anticlimactic," says Ray Bjorklund, senior vice president of Federal Sources, a McLean, Va., market-research firm. "People have positioning themselves for Networx for a long time. The GSA already made the big award with Universal. Now Enterprise is coming along, and hardly anybody is talking about it."
Sprint Nextel has the most to lose with Networx Enterprise. That’s because the carrier was the only bidder to lose Networx Universal. Sprint Nextel also is the only carrier that is an incumbent on both of the GSA’s predecessor contracts, FTS 2000 and FTS 2001.
When it lost Networx Universal, Sprint Nextel chose not to protest the GSA’s decision. Instead, the carrier announced that it would "continue to aggressively pursue the forthcoming Networx Enterprise contract."
"I think Sprint Nextel feels pretty confident," Bjorklund says. "They feel like Enterprise is addressing the range of offerings that they are well positioned to deliver."
Winning Networx Enterprise would be a coup for Level 3 Communications, which didn’t bid on Networx Universal and hasn't won a federal contract of this magnitude.
"Enterprise would position Level 3 pretty darn well in the marketplace," Bjorklund says. "They’re not top-of-mind in terms of what the federal government chooses for its suppliers. They have a decent amount of work, but they aren’t really a leading participant on any of the major telecom contracts to date."
Losing Networx Enterprise will be more of an embarrassment than anything else for AT&T, Qwest and Verizon Business. They already have locked up Networx Universal, so they can pursue most federal telecommunications deals during the next decade. However, winning Networx Enterprise will give each of these carriers one more contracting vehicle for bidding on government business – another arrow in the quiver to go after federal business. |
