3 carriers reap rewards from multibillion $ federal deal

The General Services Administration awarded billions of dollars in telecom contracts to AT&T Corp., Verizon Communications Inc. and Qwest Communications International Inc. Notably left out of the announcement is Sprint Nextel Corp., which had won previous government contracts.
The Networx Universal contracts will run 10 years and include wireless among the mix of voice, data and video services to 135 federal agencies across 191 countries. The GSA plans to announce the winners of a separate contract, called Networx Enterprise and also worth billion of dollars, in May. The value of the combined Universal and Enterprise contracts is estimated at $20 billion, but has a ceiling of $48 billion.
“Award of the Networx Universal
contracts is an historic moment at GSA, and reflects our goal of providing transformational products and services to our federal customers at the best prices available in the marketplace,”