Sprint lands government work

Three months after its network launch, Sprint has secured three government contracts for its new Peerless private IP network, a parallel infrastructure to SprintLink that has no links to the public Internet. 

While one customer contract is classified, Sprint publicly announced two major government wins this week: the FBI and the U.S. Army National Guard. Sprint is supplying the backbone for the FBI’s Digital Collection System Network (DCSNet), linking multiple bureau offices across the country. No contract value was released. For the National Guard, Sprint is replacing the armed services' ATM network, supplied by MCI, with the native IP architecture. The deal is valued at $18 million for the first year and $36 million over five years.

Sprint’s Peerless network uses Sprint’s existing native IP backbone, except all designated fiber paths are literally unhooked from all peering points and gateways on the network. The only way on and off the network is through the customer premises equipment at each client site, said Tony D’Agata, vice president and general manager of Sprint’s government systems division.

“The network just became officially available in July, and since then, the last three government procurements for IP services have all gone to Sprint,” D’Agata said. “We think there’s a lot of demand for this type of service.”

Sprint will also extend the network to commercial customers who need secure internal transactions such as financial enterprises. The carrier also is weighing the possibility of bringing Peerless international to lock in deals with government offices with international bureaus, D’Agata said.