Verizon Business will continue to provide primary IP and data services to US Social Security Administration (SSA), under a new Networx Universal task order.
Verizon Business said that under the agreement, valued at $140m through 2017 if all options are exercised, it will continue to manage the SSA’s wide-area network, known as the Enterprise-Wide Network Infrastructure (SSANet).
In addition, it will transition to a IP platform based on multiprotocol label switching (MPLS), the portion of the SSANet used for connecting to external business partners. It has previously implemented a similar transition for the SSA’s internal network.
Reportedly, Social Security personnel use the SSANet to conduct day-to-day operations across few US and international locations. The operations range from processing retirement and disability claims to using video conferencing for collaboration.
The company said that with this new order, it will continue to manage the SSA’s network services from two network operations centres (NOCs). The SSA will also use the company’s’ life-cycle engineering personnel for design, implementation and ongoing operation of the SSANet.
Earlier, Verizon Business has provided data networking services to the SSA under the GSA’s Federal Telecommunications Service 2001 (FTS2001) contract, the predecessor to the Networx program.
