Networx awards postponed until 2007

Without a word of explanation, GSA has postponed award dates on the $20 billion Networx telecom contract until 2007, the Post reports.

The contract is split into two parts. Networx Universal, the larger and more lucrative piece, requires bidders to serve more than 15,000 locations in the United States and overseas, providing noncombat communications for the military and U.S. missions in roughly 190 countries.

Winners of Networx Universal, whose award date has been delayed until March 2007 from July of this year, will share $525 million in guaranteed revenue. Beyond that they will bid for individual agency projects.

Networx Enterprise, whose contract award has been postponed to May 2007 from September of this year, is a more tailored piece of the project designed to give smaller companies without global reach a chance to bid for part of the work.

All of which means that Verizon and Sprint Nextel get to keep their current contracts with the federal government a little bit longer.