By Josh Long

Verizon Communications has been named a prime contractor with the U.S. government under a contract that is worth up to $5 billion over roughly nine years.

The U.S. General Services Administration has named Verizon a prime contractor under GSA’s CONNECTIONS II contract, which means Verizon will compete with other communications companies to provide federal agencies with an array of professional and managed services and custom networking solutions.

New York-based Verizon, which was a prime contractor under the predecessor agreement known as CONNECTIONS, didn’t say who else has been named a prime contractor under the CONNECTIONS II contract.

Verizon noted that it is the largest provider of communications services to the U.S. government and provides communications and IT services through several federal government agreements.