Unified Communications Featured Article

CenturyLink to Provide Unified Communications With U.S. Senate Contract

By Michael Guta
Contributing Writer

The U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms is responsible for all Senate telecommunications and technology support services for U.S. Senate offices in Washington, D.C., as well as in the states. This means the agency has to ensure the technology that is going to be deployed meets strict regulatory standards as it applies to security and reliability. After meeting the standards, CenturyLink was awarded a three-year contract, with additional one-year options to supply the U.S. Senate state offices with a unified communications-as-a-service platform for hosted voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) services.

The three-year contract will be delivered at around $3.8 million per year, and if all the options are exercised by the government, the total amount will be close to $26 million. As part of the contract, CenturyLink (News - Alert) will provide VoIP services to more than 450 Senate offices in all 50 states along with the hardware, software, training and help desk support.

“CenturyLink looks forward to providing U.S. Senate state offices with a modern, secure unified communications system that offers senators and their staff members more features and functionality,” said CenturyLink Senior Vice President and General Manager of Federal Solutions Erich Sanchack. “We're committed to providing innovative, cost-effective solutions that help agencies transform and modernize their legacy systems.”

CenturyLink has experience in supplying government agencies with managed hosting, cybersecurity, cloud and IT services over its carrier-class network with the security and reliability they need to carry mission critical tasks. The company operates more than 55 data centers in North America, Europe and Asia, and it provides broadband, voice, video, data and managed services over a 250,000-route-mile U.S. fiber network and a 300,000-route-mile international transport network.

The Senate offices will have access to CenturyLink's unified communications platform, which has been developed with a range of applications and capabilities. It brings together IP telephony, presence, messaging, email, video conferencing, collaboration and more in an ecosystem that integrates multiple devices and platforms to deliver communications in real-time, anytime and anywhere.

The CenturyLink UC solution is delivered across one of the largest U.S. fiber footprints, which will ensure the Senate offices will be able to access their hosted VoIP services at all times.