The Defense Department this week awarded telecommunications giant GTE a 10-year, $110 million contract to overhaul the Pentagon's above-ground telecommunications system.
GTE will be the lead contractor for the Above-Ground Telecommunications Backbone program at the Pentagon, part of DoD's 14-year renovation of the department's 55-year old headquarters. Construction crews are renovating the Pentagon structure in five sections. The first section is expected to be finished in two years. GTE and its 11 subcontractors will design, engineer, test, install and maintain the telecommunications backbone that will wire the Pentagon's five above-ground floors.
The backbone will carry telephone, computer, fax, video and data communications to 135,000 jacks throughout the building, replacing more than 100,000 miles of cables that run through the Pentagon. The backbone will handle both classified and unclassified communications for 24,000 Defense Department employees.
GTE will install the telecommunications system in two five-year phases. DoD expects the Pentagon renovation, which began in 1993, to be complete in 2007. Thousands of Pentagon employees are being relocated to temporary offices at other Northern Virginia sites during the reconstruction.
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