Verizon scores $245 million HHS contract

Verizon Business will make as much as $245 million providing the Department of Health and Human Services with telecom services through 2015, the company said Tuesday.

Under the contract, which was administered under the Washington Interagency Telecommunications System, Verizon will supply the HHS with voice and data services, dedicated voice mail, and audio, video and Web conferencing. The deal will be worth up to $245 million if all of its options are exercised, Verizon says. The HHS figures to be a particularly important federal agency over the next few years, as its public health research and food and drug safety programs figure to play a key role in implementing healthcare reform.

Verizon's $245 million deal is the third major government contract that the company has won this year. Earlier, Verizon signed a massive $2.5 billion deal with the Department of Defense to provide fully managed transmission services for the for its Pacific-region Defense Information Network System (DISN) that covers military installations in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as regions of Canada, Central and South America and the Middle East. The network is the Defense Department's official enterprise-class network for providing data, video and voice services. Marlin Forbes, a regional vice president for Verizon Federal, says the network supports everything from personnel and medical systems to intelligence programs.

Verizon also signed a $108 million deal in January to provide teleconferencing services to government space agency NASA. Under the terms of that contract, Verizon is due to provide NASA with audio, video and Web conferencing services through 2017. Although Verizon has provided NASA with all of its teleconferencing services since 2001, the new contract states that the carrier must also provide high-definition IP video conferencing that will serve as an upgrade to NASA's current video conferencing system.