Another Win for Verizon

Verizon is having a good week, as far as federal contracting goes. As my colleague Bob Brewin pointed out in What's Brewin' yesterday, Verizon stands to benefit significantly from the Pentagon's focus on the Asia-Pacific region.

Now today the U.S. Postal Service is giving the company -- the largest communications services provider to the government -- another big win closer to home. USPS selected Verizon as a prime contractor for its Telecommunications Integrated Postal Services contract.

According to a statement issued by the Postal Service, "Under a six-year agreement that is valued at as much as $186 million and extends a long-standing relationship between Verizon and the Post Service, Verizon will continue to plan, design, install and manage a private, converged Internet protocol communications network based on multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) that supports many aspects of the U.S. mail system today and provides a foundation for future technologies."

Verizon previously provided many of the services under the Managed Network Services contract with the agency, awarded in 1997. It will continue to manage this network from its dedicated network operations center in Cary, N.C.

"The Postal Service's operations are among the most far-reaching and complex in the world, and Verizon is helping them keep the mailing public connected every step of the way," said Susan Zeleniak, group president for Verizon Federal.