Qwest to boost NASA network backbone

Qwest Government Services has won a $14.2 million, eight-year award for network upgrades at NASA. 

Under the General Services Administration’s Networx Universal contract, Qwest will boost the space agency’s corporate backbone circuits from 2.5 gigabits/sec to 10 gigabits/sec.

The backbone is the high-speed broadband network that provides corporate WAN transport for e-mail, collaboration and scientific, financial and business applications for NASA headquarters, field centers, facilities and partner locations worldwide.

“Qwest provides a nationwide wavelength infrastructure that will provide NASA with a broad range of technical capabilities for supporting the International Space Station and other missions into the frontiers of space,” said Diana Gowen, senior vice president and general manager of Qwest Government Services, a unit of Qwest Communications International.

Qwest Communications International, of Denver, ranks No. 55 on Washington Technology’s 2009 Top 100 list of the largest federal government prime contractors.