By Mike Robuck
Verizon reeled in a contract worth up to US$2.4 billion over 15 years to upgrade network systems for the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), two years after being at odds with the agency over the deployment of C-Band equipment near airports.
The operator will design, build, operate and maintain the FAA’s communications platform covering mission-critical services across the National Airspace System, which provides air traffic management to more than 45,000 flights across 29 million square miles.
Verizon will also provide support services including programme, configuration and security management; network engineering; test and evaluation; and service ordering and provisioning.
CEO of Verizon Business, Kyle Malady stated it will equip the FAA with dynamic services and bandwidth provisioning, along with improved insight and visibility into network service configuration and operation.
Reuters reported in January all US flights were temporarily grounded due to an outage of a pilot messaging database.
AT&T and Verizon postponed the launch of 5G services on C-Band spectrum several times due to the FAA’s concern over interference with aircraft altimeters but ultimately the parties agreed to a phased rollout.
Verizon won a string of US government contracts over several years through the US Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) programme.
