Secure network proposal stirs debate among telecom companies

The Bush administration's proposal to create a super-secure voice and data network for federal civilian agencies has left potential contractors with more questions than answers. Last week, the administration sent national telecommunications companies into a flurry of activity when it released a request for information (RFI), which vaguely outlined a network that would be impervious to cyberattacks. Called GOVNET, the network would be free from threats posed by viruses, worms and denial-of-service attacks. According to the request, GOVNET would be a private network that is not attached to the Internet or other public networks in any way. Such a network is not unprecedented. The Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System (JWICS) is a classified network with no links at all to the public Internet that is used by intelligence agencies. Building such a network is very expensive. As such, telecommunications companies are wondering how to create it within reasonable cost constraints. Telecom insiders were uncertain how the proposed network would work. A JWICS-style network is at one end of the security-and-cost spectrum, while a virtual private network operating over the nation's public telecom infrastructure, or backbone, is at the other. The RFI "leaves lot of room for interpretation," said Tony Cira, AT&T's vice president of defense programs. The RFI states the Bush administration wants a private network, Cira said. But the question becomes "how private?" he asked. If the government decides it must own the network fiber, Cira said, GOVNET would be very private and very costly. Such a move would include operating fiber in the "last mile," the link between local telephone service and the national backbone "It's do-able," Cira said, "but it is very expensive." The RFI states the network must link 89 locations in the contiguous United States. If the federal government decided to install a dedicated network, a single company could do the job, Cira said. Building such a network is a tough proposition that would involve buying rights of way and could take a considerable amount of time to build, he said. An industry insider who asked to remain anonymous said the federal government does not want a virtual private network, but rather desires a "classic private network." But like Cira, the source agreed that building such a network would have to take into consideration the "last mile." "The federal government wants a classified network for unclassified agencies. It will be a network for mission critical, secure applications," he said. Ultimately, Cira said, GOVNET's final form will have to be a trade-off between how much reliability and security the government needs balanced against how much it wants to pay. "The federal government has asked industry to give it help in defining its requirements and we're going to do that," Cira said. Sprint, a company with a long history of building networks for the federal government, was "intrigued" by the GOVNET proposal, said John Polivka, a spokesman for the company. Sprint provided long-distance phone service to the government under the FTS 2000 contract. It also won the contract's follow-on, FTS 2001. Polivka said the company sees GOVNET as a complementary service to those already provided by FTS 2001. "GOVNET will augment the FTS 2001 program by being a supplemental network," he said. Polivka said he believes the requirements for securing and managing such a network may narrow the field of potential contractors. He expects the "usual suspects" to go after the GOVNET contract. Besides Sprint, this presumably would include AT&T, Qwest Communications Inc. and WorldCom. GovExec.com has confirmed that all four companies have the RFI and are reviewing it. The vendors will have an opportunity to gather more facts about GOVNET from the government at an Oct. 24 information day.