Final two EIS primes receive security green light

The final two vendors were cleared to provide services under the government’s flagship telecom modernization contract this week.

MetTel and Granite Telecommunications both completed business support system security testing in December to perform work on the $50 billion Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions contract, according to the General Services Administration’s latest ATO status released Wednesday.

The EIS contract allows agencies to update their IT and telecom infrastructure by placing task orders with nine primes — all of which now have authorities to operate (ATOs) from GSA, the agency leading the program.

With its three-year ATO, MetTel announced that it entered into a contract with the U.S. Mint to consolidate its telecommunications services, modernizing its broadband and wired services at six facilities — including one warehouse.

The Mint wants to end the redundancies and complications that arise with multiple service providers, reduce bandwidth and save money using a converged network. MetTel will provide digital subscriber line, T1, basic subscriber line and primary rate interface services.

MetTel was the final of three small businesses cleared to deliver products and services under EIS. Small, disadvantaged woman-owned small business Core Technologies received its ATO in November and MicroTech in October. CenturyLink, AT&T, Verizon Federal, BT Federal, and Harris Corp. are the other EIS primes.

All agencies were supposed to issue their EIS task orders by Sept. 30, but that deadline was loose. GSA intends to limit the use of extended contracts for agencies that still haven’t made task order awards by March 31, 2020, and 90% of agencies’ telecom inventory must be on EIS by March 31, 2022.

EIS’s predecessor Networx expires March 31, 2023.