VA picks AT&T to build network

The company will develop a network to increase VA's bandwidth under the $17 million task order, which came through a GSA contract.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has picked AT&T Government Solutions to help develop a single backbone Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) network. The network will increase the VA's available bandwidth and network reliability, according to a company statement.The VA awarded AT&T a task order through a General Services Administration contract. The order covers three years and is worth $17.2 million to AT&T, according to the company. The project will allow the VA to move about 48 distribution and core layer sites to the AT&T MPLS Private Network Transport Service. “Today, more and more agencies have to expand their existing bandwidth requirements in order to meet their mission-critical objectives,” said Don Herring, president of AT&T Government Solutions.