Lockheed Martin Lands Postal Service Networking Contract

The contract covers data, voice, wireless, security and video services, and brings together a team of vendors, including AT&T Corp., BellSouth Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., Hughes Network Systems Inc., Qwest Communications International, SBC Communications and Verizon Communications. The contact also calls for Lockheed to bundle some of its existing contracts into the UCC contract.

"We're putting systems in place to make it easier for people to do business with us and to control costs and keep them at a minimum," Postal Service spokesman Jim Quirk told the Washington Post. The Postal Service said a national billing and ordering system should save some $20 to $30 million a year on telecommunications services.

Lockheed has had a long history with the Postal Service, supplying it with data-networking and recognition systems. Postal Service customer headquarters in the Washington D.C. area, and another service facility in Raleigh, N.C., will receive the lion's share of the work from the new contract.