EIS contract announcements brewing

In the next few days, a group of federal agencies will likely announce their first "live" contract awards under the General Services Administration's $50 billion, 15-year Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions telecommunications contract.

Multiple sources close to the EIS contracting vehicle said to expect contract announcements from at least three agencies. NASA, the Department of Education and the Department of Justice will announce EIS contract awards possibly as soon as next week, they said.

Although agencies have been able to issue requests for information and quotes and even award contracts to the nine EIS vendors before they received their authorities to operate, those vendors could not provide service until they obtained an ATO.

In the last two weeks, GSA has granted authorizations to three of the biggest vendors: AT&T, CenturyLink and Verizon.

NASA issued a task order for EIS services to CenturyLink on April 1, according to Federal Procurement Data System information.

NASA and the Department Education didn't respond to FCW's inquiries about pending EIS award announcements. A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment.

The GSA's latest EIS back-office system testing report issued April 3 shows another group of carriers nearing completion of 70 percent of their work toward an ATO.

MetTel is 69.3 percent completed with the back-office testing. Harris and CoreTech are not far behind. MetTel officials have said they expect to get their ATO this spring.