Verizon scored yet another mammoth government contract win, securing a $2.4 billion deal to upgrade the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) telecommunications and information management systems. The award represents new business for the company.
The contract carries a 15-year term if all options are exercised. It was awarded under the agency’s new FAA Enterprise Network Services (FENS) procurement program. FENS is replacing the old FAA Telecommunications Infrastructure (FTI) contract system, which dates back to 2002.
Verizon won the FENS deal away from Harris Corp., which held the FTI award. In a way, this week’s award is actually win-back of the contract given Worldcom, which Verizon acquired in 2006, was responsible for the FAA’s telecom systems before Harris.
According to the U.S. government’s contract database SAM.gov, Verizon will be responsible for providing telecommunications, information management services and other capabilities including network connectivity for administrative information systems and functions including e-mail, payroll and online training. Verizon added in a press release it will offer dynamic service provisioning and reconfiguration as well as on-demand service flow routing to provide more security and better network performance for the agency.
Additionally, it will provide program management, network engineering, test and evaluation, and network security management services as part of the contract.
It appears the operator will be working with partners including Saab and Frequentis to execute the contract, given the CEOs of both are quoted in its press release. Indeed, Harris teamed with several other companies to deliver on the FTI contract.
Verizon said the infrastructure it provides under the contract will serve as the foundation for the Next Generation Air Transportation System.
“From dynamic services and bandwidth provisioning, to improved insight and visibility into network service configuration and operation, we are excited to help the FAA with a robust solution that will benefit the National Airspace System and administrative users alike,” Verizon Business CEO Kyle Malady said in a statement.
The contract is one of the largest government awards Verizon has secured in recent years. Under the federal government’s Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) procurement program, Verizon won a $2.5 billion contract with the Department of Health and Human Services in 2020 and last year bagged a $1.5 billion task order from the U.S. State Department as well as nearly $1 billion in contracts from the Department of Defense.