The GSA accepted 10 of the 11 bids, rejecting only Windstream, though two of the winners, CenturyLink and Level 3, are due to merge later this year. The services are similar to those outlined in the Universal contract but have fewer requirements and cover a smaller geographic area.The new Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contract from the US General Services Administration (GSA) replaces the previous Networx arrangement to provide telecoms services to the federal government. After that, all five carriers must bid against each other on each individual government agency involved with Networx for the right to provide services. The contract carries a minimum of $50 million in revenue to be split equally among all the awardees. Qwest has not received much government revenue in the past - only $10.3 million in 2006 - so the potential to bring in billions in new revenue is good news for a carrier that has returned to profitability mainly by cutting costs instead of gaining new business. This Enterprise decision is also a boost to Qwest, whose inclusion in the first Networx contract was a big deal for the carrier. But now, Sprint once again has the opportunity to bid on government business. The decision puzzled some since Sprint was an incumbent government contractor. The Universal contract had been awarded to AT&T, Verizon, and Qwest and had rejected a bid by Sprint. (See Networx Numbers Big for VZ, AT&T, Qwest.) The first was the Networx Universal contract, which is currently worth $20 billion but is capped at $48 billion should the terms of the contract ever need to be reworked. This is the second multibillion-dollar contract handed out by the General Services Administration this year. (NYSE: LVLT) have each now earned the right to bid to provide telecommunications services to individual government agencies. (NYSE: S), and Level 3 Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ), Qwest Communications International Inc. federal government's $20.1 billion Networx Enterprise contract RFP, and all five were awarded spots.

Networx contract edge