Carriers in the massive federal Networx deal are beginning to report a steady stream of contract awards as expected.

Networx is a 10-year, $20 billion program to provide voice, data and video services to all federal agencies. Carriers in the Networx contract include AT&T, Verizon Business, Qwest Communications, Sprint Nextel and Level 3 Communications. The contract is split into Networx Universal and Networx Enterprise.

Verizon Business June 23 announced it had received a $16.4 million order from the U.S. Postal Service through Networx Universal. One aspect of the deal, worth about $10 million, is for long-distance and calling-card services. The USPS also will upgrade 100 data circuits to Verizon Business' IP network running MPLS under a task order worth $6.4 million.

Verizon Business has supported the postal service for 10 years, through contracts awarded to predecessor MCI.

Meanwhile, Sprint has managed to retain two of its existing federal customers through its Networx Enterprise contract. Sprint will provide dedicated IP and Gigabit Ethernet broadband services to the Securities and Exchange Commission. It also will provide telecommunications services to AgFirst Farm Credit Bank, which is based in Columbia, S.C., through the Farm Credit System.

Sprint said both deals were worth multiple millions of dollars over the next 10 years, but wouldn't be more specific.

Ray Bjorklund, senior vice president with FedSources, a McLean, Va., consulting firm, estimated that the SEC's telecom budget is worth $9 million to $10 million a year, while the AgFirst telecom budget is worth $1.5 million to $2 million a year.

In May, Qwest won a 10-year, $100 million contract with the Social Security Administration for inbound and outbound voice, audio and videoconferencing services.

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