The Army awarded Verizon Business the Fort Huachuca task order, estimated at up to $20 million and spanning two and a half years. The task order was issued under the $4 billion infrastructure modernization contract under which the Army is updating communications capabilities at major facilities. Awarded in 2006, the IMOD contract commissioned 10 prime contractors including Verizon Business, which then bid on individual task orders. 

Verizon Business will upgrade Fort Huachuca's outside and inside plant infrastructure, install prefabricated communications shelters to store and protect critical communications assets. The company will also update the facility's data network to support increased bandwidth and converged communications requirements for current and future military requirements, enabling the post to introduce new IP-based services with the next generation IPv6 and providing future capabilities to integrate voice, data and video systems into a unified Army network infrastructure.

"Modernizing the Army's communications infrastructure will allow facilities such as Fort Huachuca to increase the speed, reliability, security, quality and flexibility of vital network-centric operations," says Susan Zeleniak, VP of federal markets for Verizon Business. "As the Army moves to EoIP, or everything over IP, Verizon Business is well-positioned to apply our professional services talent and convergence expertise to extend the benefits of IP all the way to the front lines."

Verizon Busines announced last month it is offering retailers and financial service providers stronger safeguards for protecting credit card holders' confidential data.