Lockheed wins telecom battle

Lockheed Martin Corp. beat a pair of telecom giants to win the U. S. Postal Service's $3 billion contract to provide telecommunications infrastructure services.

The deal, which could stretch out for 18 years, consolidates dozens of contracts for voice, data, wireless, managed services and network access across the third-largest network in the world.

Lockheed beat out teams led by telecommunications providers MCI Inc. and Sprint Corp. MCI was the incumbent for many of the contracts USPS is consolidating, including the network operations center.