AT&T unit takes on IP transition project

AT&T Government Solutions of Vienna, Va., has won a $1.7 million contract to plan the move of the National Communications Systems' existing emergency telecommunications service onto a new Internet Protocol network.

Under the nine-month contract, AT&T systems engineers will assist in moving the Government Emergency Telecommunications Service onto a new Internet Protocol network using Multi-Protocol Label Switching. The move is expected to bring efficiencies and reduce costs.

The emergency telecommunications service is used by key officials from federal, state and local agencies to make priority calls during emergencies when networks are overloaded and normal calls are blocked.

"AT&T Labs has some of the most experienced engineers in the industry to help our customers transition their networks to IP," Lou Addeo, president of AT&T Government Solutions, said in a news release.

AT&T Government Solutions is a part of AT&T Corp. of Bedminster, N.J. The company is ranked No. 31 on Washington Technology's 2005 Top 100 list of the largest government contractors.