DISA awards next ethernet gateway region

The Defense Information Systems Agency awards another piece of its nationwide upgrade effort to Comcast, which will provide new ethernet connectivity to DISA for accessing the military's global information network.

The Defense Information Systems Agency has awarded another piece of its nationwide upgrade effort to Comcast amid DISA’s push for better connectivity to the military’s global information network.

Comcast’s fourth win under the Commercial Ethernet Gateway initiative covers work in Region 5 that covers the states of Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

DISA said in an award notice Friday that the Region 5 contract has a $71.6 million ceiling over up to 10 years, including a six-year base period and a pair of two-year options. Four bidders pursued the award, according to the Pentagon's Friday awards digest.

The CEG initiative’s goal is to give DISA access to the same networks provided by commercial telecom services companies for connecting users to the Department of Defense Information Network known as DODIN.

Comcast will work with DISA to replace legacy circuits across the U.S. with ethernet connections. The company’s three other wins to date for CEG are for the regions covering Virginia; Maryland and Washington, D.C.; and New England.

(EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was subsequently updated with information on the number of bidders)