Army awards task orders for communications upgrade
Contractor will improve the speed, reliability and flexibility of voice and data services at five bases.
The Army has awarded Verizon Business task orders to enhance communications on five bases.
The estimated value of the projects is $70.7 million, the company announced on Thursday. Under the task orders, Verizon will upgrade fiber-optic cables and data and voice communications at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md.; Fort Greely, Alaska; Fort Lee, Va.; Fort Sill, Okla.; and Kwajalein Atoll/Kwajalein Missile Range in the Marshall Islands. The contractor will modernize the IP networks at each site and transfer communications to the new networks.
"This is in keeping with the Army chief information officer's strategic plan to move everything over to IP," said Sonya Cork, regional vice president for Verizon Federal, a unit within Verizon Business. Cork said the new network would improve the speed, reliability and flexibility of communications at the bases.
The task orders are part of the broader April 2006 Installation, Information and Infrastructure Modernization contract, an indefinite-delivery, indefinite quantity agreement with a five-year base period and a ceiling of $4 billion. Firms must compete for task orders under the contract; Cork said her company was expecting the Army to award another 10 to 12 task orders in early 2009.
The largest of the task orders announced Thursday was a $36.9 million project to modernize the IP network at Aberdeen Proving Ground. Fort Lee will receive a $9.6 million upgrade, and Fort Greely will undergo an $8.8 million enhancement. The new networks will have more bandwidth and will use multiprotocol label switching, which will allow them to support Internet protocol version 6, the next generation of the Internet.
Cork said she expects more investment in information technology infrastructure, based on the high levels of IT spending outlined in House Democrats' economic stimulus plan.
"In both the areas of IT and technology as well as facilities upgrades and infrastructure, I anticipate there will be some opportunity there," she said. "It can certainly bring a lot of great efficiencies."