Eight large companies and three small business in the D.C. area were among the 24 firms selected to compete for up to $750 million in future government work devoted to satellite communications.
The U.S. General Services Administration announced the Satcom II contract winners Wednesday. The five-year award replaces a former umbrella contract called the GSA Satellite Services contract, under which just nine companies were eligible to compete.
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The contract allows government customers from various agencies to order satellite communications equipment and services at a discounted price through the chosen vendors.
The large business winners were Arrowhead Global Solutions of Falls Church, Reston-based Artel Inc., DRS Technical Service of Dulles, Germantown’s Hughes Network Systems, Intelsat General of D.C., Herndon-based Segovia Inc., Bethesda’s Stratos Mobile Network Inc. and Telenor Satellite Services of Rockville.
The win was good news for incumbent provider Telenor, as more than 50 percent of its business comes from government work, spokesman Tom Surface said Wednesday.
“We see this as basically a stamp of approval to continue to offering services to the government,” Surface said.
Hughes was a new contract winner. It is the first time the company will sell services such as those using small satellite terminals to government customers.
“This is big for us,” said Tony Bardo, assistant vice president for government services. The company’s bid reflected a broad range of services, he said, including things like distance learning and telemedicine technology.
Nine small businesses were named Satcom-II vendors, among them CVG Inc. of Sterling, Rockville-based RiteNet Corp. and Skjei Telecom Inc. of Falls Church.
GSA did not reveal how many companies bid on the contract. Reston-based Atlas Telecom Services, Falls Church-based General Dynamic’s C4 Systems Unit and Ashburn-based Marshall Communications Corp. were among the incumbents not included in the new contract. The companies did not immediately return queries asking whether they had bid on Satcom II.
