AT&T wins first major deal at EPA

Other federal telecom news: Verizon adds mobility management suite

AT&T won a seven-year, $29 million contract to support the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's nationwide network -- the carrier's first major deal with this federal agency, which has more than 17,000 employees in Washington, D.C., 10 regional offices and 27 laboratories.

AT&T is providing the EPA with an MPLS network and VPN services, which is an upgrade from its current mix of frame-relay and private line connections.

AT&T will protect EPA's network with a range of security services including intrusion detection/protection, incident response, managed firewall and antivirus management, which are all mandated under a new federal cybersecurity program.

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AT&T won a seven-year, $29 million contract to support the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's nationwide network -- the carrier's first major deal with this federal agency, which has more than 17,000 employees in Washington, D.C., 10 regional offices and 27 laboratories.

AT&T is providing the EPA with an MPLS network and VPN services, which is an upgrade from its current mix of frame-relay and private line connections.

AT&T will protect EPA's network with a range of security services including intrusion detection/protection, incident response, managed firewall and antivirus management, which are all mandated under a new federal cybersecurity program.

AT&T won the EPA deal through a competitive bid under the U.S. General Services' Networx Enterprise contract. The other Networx Enterprise contractors are Verizon, Qwest, Sprint and Level 3 Communications.

Awarding the network deal to AT&T was a shift in strategy for EPA, which previously used the systems integrator Computer Sciences Corp. to outsource all of its IT and network services.

"EPA is a new customer now moving all of their telecom services…over to Networx," says Jeff Mohan, executive director of the Networx Program Office at AT&T Government Solutions. "It was a greenfield opportunity for the Networx contractors…and a validation that the Networx contract can provide a breadth of services."

AT&T says it won the EPA deal because it offered the best value to the government. The award was made March 19, but it was announced Thursday.

Mohan says the Networx carriers are seeing a steady increase in awards, but that the program is not yet living up to its promise of being the world's largest-ever telecom deal worth an estimated $20 billion over 10 years. Networx was awarded in 2007.

"We're seeing a steady ramp up in Networx business, but the industry is not where it needs to be," Mohan says, pointing out that the predecessor contract called FTS 2001 expires in the summer of 2011. "There are still a number of large awards yet to be made and several large networks yet to be in transition."

In other federal telecom news, Verizon Business announced this week a new offering that helps government agencies manage and secure large numbers of smart phones, laptops and other wireless devices.

Verizon's Mobility Management for Government includes antivirus, antispam, VPN, device, expense and asset management services. The services can be bought separately or in a bundle, and they add a "minimal" additional cost per device each month, Verizon says.

Verizon's Mobility Management for Government is available on the GSA's Washington Interagency Telecommunications System 3 and Alliant contracts.

"Smartphones are on the rise in the government. But as they increase the deployment of smartphones and other mobile devices that increase productivity, agencies have another issue of more things to manage," says Susan Zeleniak, group president of Verizon Federal. "This solution is primarily geared at finding a way for agencies to manage the expense and the infrastructure to support the mobile devices and the security surrounding those mobile devices."