Competitive carriers step into the public sector

Sean Buckley, FierceTelecomWhen we released our Rising Government Communications Stars in late August, one of the comments that came from one of our readers was that we should look at how competitive service providers serving what is one of the largest and most diverse vertical markets.

"ILEC's seem to have a monopoly on contracting with the world's largest customer; how about an article on CLEC government contracting?," the reader asked.

The reader's point is well taken as it is true that there are a number of willing and able competitive service providers ready to help the government fulfill its civilian and defense missions. 

Well, we have now put that feedback into action with the debut of our second feature installment that chronicles the movement of five competitive service providers targeting the public sector.  

Of course, the big opportunities that all of these competitors--that are working with the five major service providers subcontractors--are GSA's Networx Universal and Networx Enterprise in addition to the Washington Interagency Telecommunications Services-3 (WITS-3) contract.

While it's true that the large incumbent service providers joined by IXC Sprint are competitive provider Level 3 are the dominant purveyors of wireline services to the federal government, the reality is they can't do it all alone.

But Networx isn't the only opportunity competitive providers are going after. All of them are providing services directly to the government through other GSA contracts, including GSA Schedule 70 and other direct contract awards.

In this second installment of our public sector feature, we'll chronicle the strategies and the approaches of five competitive service providers are targeting the federal and state & local government industry vertical.

Click here for our 2010 Top Competitive Service Providers.

    As always I am curious to hear your thoughts about this feature. Take a look and let us know what you think.--Sean