US DISA Pays up to $411M for Level 3’s Services from 2012-2021

At the end of 2011, Level 3 Communications, LLC in Broomfield, CO received a maximum $410.8 million indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract, for up to 10 years of fiber cable operations and maintenance support, through Dec 29/21. Performance is stated as “various locations throughout the United States,” though some contracts with those designations include overseas infrastructure. This solicitation was issued without competition under FAR 6.302-1 (one responsible source) by the Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization’s National Capital Region (HC1047-12-D-0002). The justification/approval package was marked sensitive/secure, and L-3 declined to discuss its contract further. Level 3 is primarily a large-scale fiber optic communications infrastructure play, with significant quantities of “dark” (unlit/unused) fiber, alongside a lit Tier 1 network used by a number of medium and large telecom carriers around the world. They also offer managed services of various types on top of that, including a dedicated content delivery service that includes customers like Netflix and Apple. On Oct 4/11, the firm completed its purchase of Global Crossing, the IPv6 backbone provider whose 2002 bankruptcy and restructuring was one of the highest-profile casualties of the dot-com collapse.