Windstream pulls protest, removes hurdle for EIS awards

The General Services Administration might be back on track to award its $50 billion Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions contract this spring now that a pre-award protest has been withdrawn.

Windstream Communications filed a protest in April after it was eliminated from the competitive range for EIS, the follow-on contract to the Networx telecommunications contract. While the protest was pending, GSA could not make EIS awards.

Earlier, GSA officials had said they wanted to make awards by late spring, so that timeframe is now doable with Windstream’s withdrawal.

It is unclear whether Windstream has been allowed back into the competition, which is what they were asking for as part of their protest, or if during the back-and-forth of the GAO protest process the company realized it would not prevail.

Windstream declined to comment on the protest or the contract.

EIS is the long-awaited replacement for the current Networx contract held by AT&T, Verizon, CenturyLink and Level 3. Winners will compete for task orders to provide telecommunications services to federal agencies.

The structure of EIS has attracted new competitors to the field beyond the traditional telecom providers.