Qwest won an $8.3 million contract from the U.S. Department of Energy this week to upgrade the its headquarters’ voice switch system.

Under terms of the contract, Qwest will transition the Energy Department's voice switch to a Nortel Communications Server 2100, an IP-enabled server that can be scaled from 5,000 to 200,000 ports (compare IP PBX products). According to Qwest, the upgrade will allow the the Energy Department's dual headquarters, located in Washington, D.C., and Germantown, Md., to keep their existing TDM voice capabilities fully functioning while making the transition to VoIP.

Additionally, Qwest says that it will support the switch upgrade using its managed QWave network service that delivers dense wave division multiplexing at speeds of up to 10Gbps.

Qwest has become a major player in governmental telecom services in recent years. Earlier this year, it was one of three U.S. carriers selected to take part in Networx Universal, a 10-year federal government program that totals more than $20 billion worth of contracts. In addition to winning Networx contracts, Qwest also supports federal agencies such as the Justice Department, the U.S. Postal Service, the Treasury Department and the Defense Information Systems Agency.

Additionally, Qwest has won several state government contracts over the past few years, including a $20 million pact to install and maintain Cisco hardware for Minnesota’s main WAN, and a $24.7 million deal to connect more than 400 Wyoming public schools through its networking system.