AT&T posts $1 billion DOJ telecom win

NOTE: This article appeared first on FCW.com

AT&T will be providing telecom services for the Department of Justice under a 15-year task order with a ceiling value of $1 billion, the company announced July 29.

The award is the most high-profile to date on the $50-billion governmentwide Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions next-generation telecommunications contract vehicle administered by the General Services Administration.

An AT&T official told FCW that mobility and cloud were keys to winning the DOJ task order and that the agency is looking to the EIS contract as a modernization vehicle.

"It's not like-for-like," Stacy Schwartz, vice president, AT&T Public Safety and FirstNet said in an interview with FCW. "They're looking at evolution and requirements for technology over 15 years."

Schwartz added that the DOJ contract "is a well thought out path to modernization" for the agency that leverages the cloud and particularly mobility.

The contract covers all DOJ agencies, except the FBI, supporting more than 120,000 employees across more than 2,100 locations. It includes IP voice, data, security and connections to AT&T's dedicated, nationwide broadband wireless network for public safety and law enforcement, FirstNet. The contract will also migrate 120,000 managed voice services users currently with CenturyLink and Verizon under the GSA's Networx contract over to AT&T's IP voice services, Schwartz said.

The new solution, said the company, will help simplify cloud adoption across 43 component organizations and support the Joint Cloud Optimized Trusted Internet Connection Service, the department's plan to address reliability, security and speed in its developing multicloud environment.

Under the contract, said Schwartz, the agency will also inject more mobility into its network through FirstNet. Although FirstNet wasn't the deciding factor for the agency, "it's definitely a key discriminator" for AT&T under EIS, she said.

AT&T is almost 60% completed in rolling out the core network for first responders. In an earnings call on July 24, AT&T President and CEO Randall Stephenson said the company will be almost 70% finished with FirstNet by year's end, ahead of schedule.

The work, he said, has also accelerated AT&T's installation of 5G, putting it on track for nationwide 5G coverage by the end of 2020.

Contracting documents initially reported on by FCW on June 28 valued EIS contract at $527 million over 13 years. Justice Department officials explained to FCW on July 29 the figure and duration -- $984 million over 15 years -- reported by AT&T is correct. The initial $527 million task order did not include all pricing elements, and a subsequent modification corrected the omission, they said.