MetTel advances EIS contract vehicle status with 800-site GSA deployment
Key Highlights
- Implemented SD-WAN, SASE security, and LEO satellite services to improve remote site connectivity and security.
- Migrated legacy TDM voice systems to a cloud-enabled SIP environment with multi-carrier redundancy for enhanced reliability.
- Upgraded data circuits from DSL and LTE to broadband and Ethernet, supporting increased bandwidth requirements.
- Modernized voice services for critical systems like elevators, fire alarms, and childcare centers, ensuring operational resilience.
- Executed under GSA’s EIS contract, demonstrating MetTel’s expanding role in federal infrastructure modernization.
MetTel recently completed a large-scale data and voice network upgrade for the General Services Administration (GSA), reflecting the competitive provider’s growing presence in the broader public sector services market.
Executed under GSA’s Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contract, the service provider equipped the GSA with a suite of SD-WAN, SASE-based security, and low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellite services for the agency’s remote sites.
Don Parente, VP of Public Sector Sales at MetTel, said that while MetTel continues to win various task orders from several federal agencies, the remote site GSA contract represents what he calls a key project.
“This project highlights several things,” he said. “The GSA CIO had to do their own task order, like everyone else, but knew they could not go out and buy more of the same because the stated goal from the Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) was that EIS would be a transformational contract.”
He added that GSA, which drove them to work with MetTel was that “we bring a fresh perspective, which centers around a vendor agnostic approach to networking, which gives agencies more options than before.”
SASE’s influence in SD-WAN grows
SASE is becoming a growing factor in the SD-WAN market. Recent reports from Analysys Mason and GII Research predict that Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) revenue will reach $24 billion by 2029, representing 18% of the combined SD-WAN and cloud security market for that year. This growth is driven by factors, including the rise of remote work and cloud-first strategies, with SASE becoming a necessity for secure and reliable connections. The rise in remote and hybrid work models is a key factor fueling SASE adoption as companies seek to secure access from any location.
SD-WAN as the anchor
With the goal of migrating away from legacy data and voice services, SD-WAN has become the anchor architecture for GSA.
This upgrade flattened GSA’s network core, enhanced security, and optimized traffic flow for cloud-based applications enabling seamless and secure operations across nearly 800 locations.
As part of the network transformation, MetTel migrated hundreds of DSL and wireless LTE sites to broadband and Ethernet services, upgrading data circuits to support "Return to Office" bandwidth needs, and modernizing the agency's voice service systems.
But data services are only part of the work MetTel conducted for GSA.
As part of the project, MetTel migrated the GSA’s legacy TDM voice systems into a SIP-based, cloud-enabled environment with multi-carrier redundancy. With MetTel’s support, GSA is creating resilient and dependable voice services for critical systems such as elevators, fire alarms, and on-site childcare centers.
“We replaced legacy network technologies and brought them together in a cohesive way with SD-WAN network,” Parente said. “While moving to SD-WAN is a major architectural shift, it has allowed them to leverage lower cost network options—getting a lot more bandwidth for a lot less money.”
He added that this SD-WAN architecture allows the GSA to “adopt new technology if they had not gone through this journey.”
Security was also part of the SD-WAN buildout.
MetTel deployed a new software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) network infrastructure for GSA integrated with zero-trust security to implement zero-trust architecture.
Zero trust is a security model based on the principle of "never trust, always verify," which assumes no user or device is inherently secure, regardless of its location. Instead of trusting everything inside a network perimeter, a zero trust approach requires strict identity verification and authorization for every access request to resources, enforcing a "least privilege" policy to grant only necessary access.
MetTel’s ZTNA works with MetTel’s FWaaS (Firewall as a Service) to enable secure, granular access to applications no matter if the user is on-net or off-net. Each session is initiated with an automatic, encrypted tunnel from the user’s computer to the EMS proxy for user and device verification.
“As we transformed the network environment for the GSA, they said we need to implement some zero trust into our environment,” Parente said. “Because of the way we built SD-WAN for them, we were able to incorporate zero zero-trust environment they brought to the table and wanted us to build around it.”
LEO Satellites remote role
As MetTel built out the SD-WAN capabilities, GSA asked if the service provider could incorporate Starlink’s Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite connectivity to accommodate remote sites.
This capability extends high-speed, resilient network access to some of the agency’s most far-reaching and underserved field offices.
Last November, MetTel became Authorized Starlink Reseller for government and commercial enterprises, enabling the service provider to accommodate areas that may not currently have connectivity or a need to fulfill an order for a multi-national business quickly.
This agreement enables MetTel to offer fully managed network services to any location worldwide via Starlink’s ubiquitous laser mesh network of LEO satellites. MetTel is using Starlink connectivity to deliver managed SD-WAN broadband service, enabling a whole new range of applications and expanding what it says is the definition of a “network.
“We brought Starlink to the table,” Parente said. “The SD-WAN gives GSA this framework to have this level of flexibility and take advantage of where the investments are.”
He added that implementing satellite and broadband technologies to support SD-WAN reflects the ongoing evolution of the networking industry.
“We work where the technology is running into and not to where it is running away from,” Parente said. “If you look at over the past 5 to seven years, the money is going to LEO satellite, the build out of broadband as well as the build out of 5G wireless and cloud.”
What is Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS)?
Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) is the federal government’s recommended contract vehicle for enterprise telecommunications and networking services. The contract vehicle is a solution-based vehicle to address all aspects of federal agency IT telecommunications and infrastructure requirements. EIS use cases, which include Zero Trust Architecture, TIC 3.0, SD-WAN, Ethernet, IPv6, and IP Voice, are designed to help federal agencies modernize their IT infrastructure. As the main component of GSA’s telecommunications portfolio, EIS replaced GSA’s current Networx Universal and Enterprise contracts as well as GSA Regional Local Service Agreements (LSAs) for government telecommunications and infrastructure solutions. The EIS contract, with 15 years of performance (one 5-year base and two 5-year options), is valued at $50 billion and will provide a $75 million minimum revenue guarantee per awardee.
GSA’s transformation focus
While there’s no shortage of reports of government agencies being slow with their technology transitions, GSA appears to be the exception.
GSA came to MetTel with the goal of transforming their underlying technology foundation.
While the initial tasks of consolidating earlier contract vehicles like WITS and Networx are common across all government agencies, Parente said that the GSA “came out to do a transformation and is always on the leading edge, so that makes them a bit different.”
And besides embracing SD-WAN and Zero Trust, Parente added that GSA has also embraced a managed network construct. MetTel plays the role of integrating SD-WAN, satellite and next-gen SIP voice services, a role it has played since the company was founded.
“We are managing everything for them, even Starlink,” Parente said. “Some other government agencies often purchase MPLS circuits from two providers and hire a systems integrator to make it work.”
What makes SD-WAN different from Frame Relay and MPLS circuits, which required enterprises and government agencies to work with only one service provider is that the new environment offers greater flexibility.
“The current environment is not a whole lot different,” Parente said. “With Frame Relay and MPLS it was very monolithic, but as you move into the current environment, a government agency or enterprise can work with a provider like MetTel that can bring the best broadband, mobile and satellite providers together to make it look like they are only buying one service.”
He added, “These ties back to our heritage of taking a complex environment of dealing with hundreds of providers and bringing it together so you only have to deal with one provider.”
GSA EIS contract suppliers
GSA’s EIS contract suppliers reflect a wide diversity of service providers that represent both large and small businesses:
- AT&T--Large Business
- BT Federal--Large Business
- Comcast Government Services--Large Business
- AOC Connect--Small Business
- Granite Telecommunications--Large Business
- L3Harris--Large Business
- Lumen--Large Business
- MetTel--Small Business
- Verizon--Large Business
Expanded EIS player list
A key difference of the EIS contract vehicle is that, unlike the previous contract, Networx, the GSA expanded how many providers that agencies can choose from for services. EIS awarded nine players were awarded 2017.
While EIS includes usual suspects like AT&T, Verizon and Lumen, which have always been dominant players in large-scale federal contract vehicle, MetTel was among a new set of players.
This group offers federal agencies various use cases, including for Zero Trust Architecture, TIC 3.0, SD-WAN, Ethernet, IPv6, and IP Voice to modernize their infrastructure.
According to GSA, TIC service provides networking solutions with built-in security that map to agency requirements and CISA’s TIC 3.0 guidance for Traditional TIC, Branch Office, Remote User and future cases. Broadband Internet Service (BIS) adds a lower-cost network transport option for connecting users to agency networks and Cloud services, supports the Software Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) service and contributes to zero-trust solutions in response to the federal government’s “Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity” drive.
“GSA expanded the pool of bidders,” Parente said. “Whereas Networx was limited to only three providers, there are nine on the EIS contract.”
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About the Author
Sean Buckley
Sean is responsible for establishing and executing the editorial strategy of Lightwave across its website, email newsletters, events, and other information products.