Telonics Inc.

Telonics Inc., a Mesa, Arizona-based for-profit Subchapter S corporation, manufactures and sells specialized GPS, Iridium, VHF, and Argos radio collars and telemetry equipment to federal wildlife agencies as a prime contractor under full-and-open procurement, with no subcontract footprint and minimal reliance on small business set-asides despite qualifying as a small business.

Telonics operates almost entirely as a sole-source vendor to the Department of the Interior and related civilian agencies. The company's 838 recent awards—spanning from 1984 through July 2026—total $24.5 million in potential value, with 98% obligated. The vendor competes predominantly under full-and-open designation; only a subset of awards carry Total Small Business set-aside tags, and the vast majority are awarded without set-aside restriction. This posture reflects Telonics' status as original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of proprietary collars and telemetry systems that create high barriers to substitution—federal agencies sole-source to Telonics because existing infrastructure, software compatibility, and data transmission systems (Iridium networks, Argos platforms, proprietary receiving equipment) lock in repeat procurement.

The top five customer agencies by both award count and dollar value account for 50% of combined potential value and represent the entire customer concentration signal: the Department of the Interior US Geological Survey Office of Acquisitions and Grants (66 awards, $6.4 million), National Park Service Alaska Region (64 awards, $2.1 million), Fish and Wildlife Service Region 7 (55 awards, $2 million), National Park Service Intermountain Region (48 awards, $1.2 million), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (53 awards, $549 thousand). These five agencies anchor 286 of Telonics' 838 total awards. The Alaska Region and Intermountain Region of the National Park Service recur across the award history, reflecting sustained caribou, wolf, bear, bison, and sheep monitoring programs that depend on Telonics' proprietary equipment.

Representative recent work includes a $104,065 firm fixed-price purchase order from the US Fish and Wildlife Service (July 2026) for GPS radio collars to monitor grizzly bear movements across the Cabinet, Purcell, and Selkirk Mountains in Montana, Idaho, and Washington, sole-sourced under FAR 13.106-1(b)(1)(i) and (ii) based on manufacturer exclusivity and compatibility with the Service's existing proprietary software and cabling; a $251,105 purchase order from the National Park Service (January 2025) for caribou monitoring collars supporting the Bering Land Bridge and Wrangell-St. Elias projects across Alaska; a $181,530 Total Small Business purchase order from USDA APHIS Wildlife Services (September 2023) for 80 TGW-4577-4 Iridium/GPS collars to track mule deer behavior and resource selection in Chronic Wasting Disease research; and a $127,530 purchase order from the Fish and Wildlife Service Alaska Region (July 2026) for sheep collars. Work consistently combines new collar sales with refurbishment and repair of existing units—refurbished collars cost approximately $665 per unit less than new purchases, creating recurring revenue from agencies' installed base across national parks and wildlife refuges.

Telonics places the majority of its work on two parent indefinite delivery contracts: INF701815D031 (51 task orders, $1.4 million combined potential value) and ING12PC00004 (6 task orders, $981 thousand), with additional volume under smaller BPAs and IDCs. The vendor's NAICS footprint sits almost entirely in radio and television broadcasting and wireless communications equipment manufacturing (593 awards) and other communications equipment manufacturing (80 awards), with PSC concentration in miscellaneous communication equipment (259 awards) and radio and television communication equipment (117 awards).

Activity has declined in recent years—13 awards in 2022, 16 in 2023, and 13 in 2024, dropping to only five awards each in 2025 and 2026 (through July). This trajectory reflects the award lifecycle characteristic of sole-source OEM vendors: initial high volume from multiple agencies adopting the equipment, followed by consolidation into maintenance and refurbishment as installed base matures. Only four awards with combined potential value of $266 thousand face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, indicating minimal recompete exposure in the near term. The vendor operates without a documented subcontractor footprint; all 838 awards are prime awards, and no federal grants or grant sub-awards appear in the source data.