Thursday, February 26, 2009

AT&T and Verizon win FEMA contract

Poor Sprint. After soliciting bids from wireless carriers, the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) has selected various services from AT&T and Verizon to serve the next major emergency (within the next year at least). Verizon will be responsible for emergency communications, with Stratus Technologies selected to power satellite communications. AT&T will provide wireless and Wi-Fi service on a daily basis as well as up to 16,000 cell phones, data cards, Blackberries and PTT phones to government workers (with Verizon stockpiling handsets for use in the event of an emergency). The contracts are good for one year, with the option for FEMA to extend them by an additional four years. This has got to sting for Sprint after its very public $2 billion disaster communications proposal.

No comments: