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CenturyLink, Comcast Business partner on $79M state contract
Listen to this articleCenturyLink and Comcast Business are teaming up to provide high-speed network services and last-mile connectivity to commonwealth agencies, commissions, councils, bureaus, authorities and boards across Pennsylvania.
The partnership carries out part of a five-year enterprise network services contract signed in August with Level 3 Communications, which was acquired by CenturyLink in November. Terms of the financial split between CenturyLink and Comcast were not immediately available.
The network contract comes at a time when state lawmakers, led by Rep. Seth Grove (R-York), are pushing for a consolidation of information technology services, funding and oversight into a single state office. There have been many IT-related issues in state government and Grove said there needs to be greater transparency in IT spending.
“We still have failing IT projects,” he said. “We still have no idea of how many IT projects we have, how much they cost and if they are on budget or on time.”
Grove, who has introduced legislation to create an Office of Information Technology under the Office of Administration, said the network contract with CenturyLink and Comcast does not address his broader IT concerns. However, he also said he isn’t aware of any specific network issues.
“But again, we do not have any IT transparency to begin with,” he added.
Through its Level 3 business, CenturyLink has been serving the commonwealth under state contracts for more than 20 years. CenturyLink has more than 7,700 fiber route miles in Pennsylvania and about 450,000 miles of fiber across its global network.
Comcast Business also has fiber spread across the commonwealth, including much of the midstate, and more than 150,000 fiber miles nationwide.
