Agencies have until September to award task orders off the massive Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions telecommunications contract, but as of last Thursday, only one vendor has met the security requirements to be eligible for award.

The EIS contract is expected to be worth $50 billion over 15 years, as every federal agency — civilian and defense — is preparing to solicit services ranging from basic telecom to video and voice over IP to wholesale infrastructure modernization. As the backbone infrastructure for all data and communications transiting in and out of agency networks, the nine companies with spots on the contract will have to meet stringent cybersecurity standards, documented and verified through an authority to operate, or ATO.

CenturyLink announced last week that it was the first to complete the ATO process.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2019/03/security-authorizations-trickle-deadlines-near-50-billion-telecom-contract/155751/