CenturyLink secured a contract worth up to $1.6 billion to provide core networking and managed access services to the U.S. Department of the Interior.

The contract was awarded by the General Services Administration’s (GSA) Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) program. CenturyLink is one of nine EIS approved vendors that had an opportunity to bid on the contract, a company spokesperson told SDxCentral.

The company last year became the first vendor to receive authority under the GSA’s 15-year, $50 billion EIS program to operate, and it won the first contract awarded under the program to provide core network services with speeds up to 100 Gb/s to NASA through 2029.

CenturyLink views the public sector, and the federal government in particular, as a growth area for the company, according to the spokesperson.

The company’s two-part order with the Interior Department is spread over 11 one-year options that run through 2032. CenturyLink’s managed core network services team is now responsible for the design, build, operation, and maintaining of the agency’s enterprise network, including SD-WAN, a virtual private network, and ethernet transport services.

The company is also being tasked to provide Managed Trusted Internet Protocol Services (MTIPS) and zero-trust networking services that meet the federal government’s security requirements. That second part of the order covers managed access services, secure cloud connectivity, and WiFi, according to CenturyLink.

The work is already underway and will take place in Washington, D.C. as well as the agency’s entire footprint, the spokesperson said. The Interior Department employs more than 65,000 people and has operations at 2,400 locations.

CenturyLink declined to name other equipment or service vendors that might be involved in the effort.

“The Department of Interior selected CenturyLink to deliver secure, modern network services that will help the agency achieve its mission to conserve and manage our nation’s natural resources and cultural heritage for the benefit and enjoyment of the American people,” said David Young, SVP of CenturyLink’s public sector business, in a prepared statement.

The GSA previously extended a deadline for federal agencies to implement EIS, which it describes as a comprehensive vehicle to address all aspects of federal agency IT telecommunications and infrastructure requirements, to May 2023. The agencies' contracts with legacy telecommunications providers were originally set to expire in May 2020.