<FONT SIZE=2> Throw out the crystal ball. High-tech executives will have to rely on instinct, experience and up-to-the-minute intelligence to navigate the government IT market in 2003.</FONT>
Affiliated Computer Services Inc. has signed a one-year, $3.2 million contract with the Department of Defense Education Activity to provide local area network and desktop support services to the activity's facilities in four locations, the company announced Dec. 24.
Qwest Communications International Inc. and TKC Communications LLC, an Alaska Native corporation, have been awarded a joint multi-year contract to build a high-speed network for secure communications among NASA facilities throughout the United States.
The Federal Communications Commission late last week sought comments on whether it should require more communications companies to offer access to 911 emergency calling systems.
Computer Sciences Corp. is planning to create a telecommunications and networking unit after it purchases DynCorp, company officials said Dec. 20. The federal government is changing the way it buys telecommunications and networking services, and that is one of the areas where the DynCorp acquisition bolsters CSC capabilities, said Paul Cofoni, president of CSC federal sector.
New York faces a major challenge next month when officials begin evaluating bids for a statewide wireless network because of the complexity of the technology involved, the state's CIO says.<br>
The number of businesses and homes with high-speed connections to the Internet grew 27 percent in the first six months of 2002, the government reports.<br>
Nextel Communications Inc. has won a two-year contract from the General Services Administration to provide mobile radio services to federal, state and local agencies.<br>
AT&T Corp. won a State Department contract to help ensure strategic international communication services are available to about 50 federal agencies in more than 250 countries around the world.<br>
<FONT SIZE=2>When a variant of the infamous Klez virus, called Klex, wormed its way through e-mailboxes last April, it didn't creep into the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And when a little-known buffer overflow in the Solaris operating system came to light last June, no hacker could have exploited it to compromise a CDC system. That's because the agency's servers were already patched.</FONT>
<FONT SIZE=2>The White House has no plans to relax its control over the budget process that many in government view as a power grab by the Office of Management and Budget.</FONT>
Industry and government public-safety experts say the nation needs a sophisticated national alert system that relies on information technology to spread warning messages.<br>
The military is bypassing commercial proprietary software in favor open-source software more than it previously assumed, according to a new survey.<br>
WorldCom Inc. won a five-year contract from the Veterans Affairs Department's Canteen Services division as the preferred long-distance service provider for patient phones in 175 VA medical centers and clinics. Despite the financial scandal that drove WorldCom into bankruptcy earlier this year, the company continues to be one of the largest providers of telecommunications services to the federal government.
Investors in the federal and<FONT SIZE=2> commercial information technology space have watched Electronic Data Systems Corp. go from high flying to struggling. One issue EDS is tackling is the eight-year, $6.9 billion Navy-Marine Corps Intranet contract awarded in October 2000. </FONT>
<FONT SIZE=2>Replacing paper forms with electronic ones doesn't merely mean mocking up a cyberspace replica of the paper version -- not if an agency wants to truly realize the productivity gains of e-records.</FONT>
<FONT SIZE=2>W</FONT><FONT SIZE=2>ith 70 members, the Financial Services Committee is the second largest committee in the House, and public seating in its hearing room is limited.</FONT>
<FONT SIZE=2>Warfighter Information Network - Tactical</FONT><FONT SIZE=2>Army Communications Electronics Command</FONT><FONT SIZE=2>Value: </FONT><FONT SIZE=2>$6.6 billion</FONT><FONT SIZE=2>Awarded: </FONT><FONT SIZE=2>Lockheed Martin Corp. and General Dynamics Corp. both won contracts Aug. 9 that will develop the architecture and start initial production of systems for testing. The Army will then pick between the two for full production.</FONT>
