AT&T, T-Mobile US and Verizon will provide wireless service and devices to the US military under newly awarded contracts which could total nearly $1 billion over five years if extension options are exercised.

Per the agreement, the three operators will deliver service and equipment to the US Navy, Marine Corps, Army, Air Force and other Department of Defence (DoD) and federal agencies. Though the initial $198.7 million contract total covers a period of one year, the terms also include four optional one-year extension periods which could bring the overall value of the contracts to $993.5 million.

The DoD indicated execution of the initial phase of the contract will be completed by November 2018. However, if the extensions are activated, work could extend through November 2022.

Other government jobs
In August, AT&T and Verizon were among ten companies to be awarded spots in the US General Services Administration’s new 15-year, $50 billion, Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) technology purchasing programme. The EIS is used to fulfil technology orders for around 53 federal agency customers, including 8,000 sub-agencies and a total of 16,000 customer accounts.

Earlier this month, Verizon snagged a $23 million Navy contract to provide “integrated, switched voice and data telecommunications services, maintenance, and service responsibilities” at two Pennsylvania locations through September 2022.

The same week, AT&T was awarded a government contract to provide cloud-based communications services to nearly 1 million US Army users. AT&T indicated it would deliver services including voice, video, chat, instant messaging, presence and screen sharing. So, for instance, an Army technician overseas will be able to share their screen with an expert on a base back home to make repairs easier.

Financial terms of AT&T’s contract were not disclosed.

In 2016, AT&T reported a total of $14.8 billion in fixed and wireless Global Public Sector sales. To-date in 2017, the operator reported $254 million in wireless Public Sector sales alone.