At & T Team Wins $5 Billion Us Military Contract

The US military said on Wednesday it had awarded a $5 billion communications contract to a corporate team led by American Telephone and Telegraph Co, one of the biggest such contracts ever let by the Pentagon.

The team, including several Baby Bell telephone firms around the nation as well as GTE and Time-Warner Communications, will install equipment at domestic bases to transmit secure voice, data and video information globally.

Pentagon officials said 190 bids were solicited by the Defence Information Systems Agency and only three bids were submitted. The two losing teams were headed by Sprint and MCI, officials said.

 

The contract, expected to run for nine years including eight one-year options, is the latest step in the US militarys move to use commercial providers in upgrading to secure digital and other communications with state-of-the-art equipment such as fiber optic lines.

Sites to be served by the equipment will include points ranging from the White House to soldiers in the field around the globe, according to defence officials.

The so-called Defense Information Systems Network (DISN), will cover all defence communications that either originate in or end in the United States.

In addition to GTE and Time-Warner, AT&T team members will include Bell Atlantic, Bell South, Ameritech, Pacific Bell, Southwestern Bell, U.S. West Communications, Nynex, United and Central Telephone Companies and Metropolitan Fiber Systems.

Air Force Lt Gen Albert Edmonds, head of the Defence Information Systems Agency, said that the move to commercial sources for such transmission equipment would save the Pentagon money and guarantee up-to-date technology.

The agency said in a release that the contract was only one of several planned in the future to update military communications. It said multiple-contract approach has resulted in price reductions ranging from 50 to 90 per cent for planned work.