CenturyLink lands NASA connectivity contract

CenturyLink announced today that it won a contract to provide fast, secure connectivity to NASA.

As part of the contract, CenturyLink will provide core backbone network services with speeds of up to 100 Gbps to NASA over a period of nine and a half years. CenturyLink won the contract through the General Services Administration's Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) program.

"It's an honor to be the first vendor awarded an EIS task order," said CenturyLink's David Young, senior vice president for strategic government. "Our fast, secure network connectivity will help NASA achieve its vision to reach for new heights and reveal the unknown for the benefit of humankind."

RELATED: CenturyLink garners authority to operate under GSA's EIS program

Last month, CenturyLink and Verizon announced that they both had received the Authority to Operate (ATO) under the General Service Administration’s (GSA) Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contract.

EIS is GSA's 15-year, $50 billion program that was designed to award various contracts to vendors that help federal agencies to buy and update their IT and telecommunications infrastructure services. It's an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) program that serves as the follow-on to GSA's Networx, WITS3 and regional telecommunications services contracts.

EIS gives federal agencies the flexibility and agility to migrate to modern communications and IT services that meet government security standards. GSA is extending the transition deadline from 2020 to 2023 to give federal agencies more time to transition from legacy contracts, such as Networx, to EIS. CenturyLink said it's one of the few government contractors that offers agencies the choice to acquire IT services through its GSA IT Schedule 70, Networx Universal and Enterprise, WITS3, Connections II, EIS and Alliant 2 contracts.

CenturyLink is ranked No. 29 on Washington Technology's 2018 Top 100 list of federal government IT contractors.