As of the origination of this market on March 29th 2007, the highly anticipated Networx Universal contracts have been awarded by the U.S. General Services Administration to AT&T Corp, MCI Communications Services, Inc. doing business as Verizon Business Services, and Qwest Government Services, Inc.

GSA can now provide worldwide continuity of vital mission critical services that underlie government operations by leveraging the government’s telecommunications services buying power to offer leading edge technology at the best prices in the marketplace.

The Networx project is split into two parts: Networx Universal, which provides everything from VPNs and VoIP to frame-relay and ATM services; and the Enterprise component, which focuses on emerging IP and wireless services.

The Networx Enterprise contract covered in this market is expected to be awarded before the end of May to one of the five competing teams led by the competitors indicated in this market – AT&T, Level 3, Qwest, Sprint-Nextel or Verizon – and the presumption is one of these five competitors will take the lion’s share of what could be a US$ 20 billion contract over the next 10 years.

Which competitor do you think will be the biggest winner as judged in terms of either exclusive contract award or anticipated “lion’s share” of a split contract by GSA between multiple vendors?