Sprint Adds Gov. Customers

Bolstering its public sector business, Sprint’s government systems division today announced longterm deals with the Army National Guard and the FBI.

In the first contract, the company will link 58 National Guard sites into its peerless Internet protocol network. The project is valued at $18 million for equipment and services during the first year and up to $36 million over five years.

Sprint partners, Cisco and Tandberg, will supply routers and videoconferencing equipment, respectively, for the network modernization and expansion.

The National Guard previously used MCI for the service, Sprint said. The project was won through a competitive bid process.

The FBI deal runs for three years and include secure IP Virtual Private Network services to FBI sites across the country. The value of the contract was not disclosed.

The FBI is one of a several agencies to recently take advantage of this new service. Sprint completed its “government-grade” network offering earlier this year and has received interest from federal government agencies.

A Sprint spokeswoman was not immediately available for comment.

In a statement, Tony D’Agata, vice president and general manager for Sprint’s Government Systems Division, said,
“The Sprint peerless IP network is specifically tailored to meet the performance and security demands of government customers by eliminating connections to the public Internet and creating a closed user group environment.”

Sprint Government Systems Division is based in Herndon, Va., and also offers products and services to state government customers.