DREN protests dropped

Two of the three companies protesting the award of a 10-year, $450 million high-speed networking contract to WorldCom Inc. have withdrawn complaints they made to the General Accounting Office.

Sprint Communications Corp., Westwood, Kan., and AT&T Corp., New York, withdrew their protests in late May. They had objected to the April decision by the Defense Information Systems Agency to award the Defense Research and Engineering Network contract to WorldCom, Clinton, Miss., citing inconsistencies in the evaluation criteria DISA used to award the contract.

Sprint still believes there are irregularities in the evaluation criteria but continuing its protest was not likely to change the result of the award, said Sprint spokesman John Polivka.

AT&T did not return telephone calls requesting comment.

The third protester, Global Crossing Ltd., Bermuda, is continuing its appeal. A decision is due July 22, said Dan Gordon, associate general counsel at GAO.

Global Crossing won the contract last July, but DISA withdrew the award after AT&T, Sprint, WorldCom and Qwest Communications International Inc. of Denver, appealed the selection.

DISA was set to award the contract a second time in January, again to Global Crossing, but held off when the company announced it was filing for bankruptcy.