May 19, 2004—Computer Sciences Corporation has been awarded a contract modification by the Department of Homeland Security’s National Communications System for the Government Emergency Telecommunications Service (GETS) and Wireless Priority Service (WPS) programs.
CSC estimates the value of the contract modification to the company to be approximately $200 million.The original contract, announced March 3, 2004, had an estimated value of approximately $81 million.
Under the contract modification, CSC will design, develop and deploy a wireless priority service based on Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology.
The government’s original vision for WPS included a service compatible with all major wireless carriers in the United States. Of the nation’s six major wireless carriers, four use the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) technology standard. The remaining two major carriers use the CDMA standard. The GSM-based WPS was developed first and is currently being deployed by the GSM carriers.
“During an emergency, key response personnel and leaders in the public and private sectors must make quick decisions based on limited information,” said Jim McCoy, president of CSC’s Networks and Telecommunication Integrated Solutions organization. “By developing and deploying WPS service compatible with CDMA networks, we will increase decision makers’ access to critical communication services during an emergency. We are proud to continue and expand our support of these communications systems vital to the security of our nation.” The GETS and WPS are major federal government programs for improving national security and emergency preparedness telecommunications in the event of natural or manmade disasters. These programs offer priority treatment and enhanced routing not available to normal telecommunications traffic. For more information, contact CSC.
