Windstream Communications, LLC

Windstream Communications, LLC, a for-profit telecommunications carrier based in Little Rock, Arkansas, provides local and long-distance voice services, data connectivity, Internet access, and fiber-optic infrastructure to federal agencies as a prime contractor across 275 awards spanning twenty years. The vendor competes on a full-and-open basis with no set-aside designation; it operates predominantly as a prime (99% of awards) and carries a combined potential value of $1.01 billion across all federal sources, though only $29.1 million has been obligated to date.

Customer concentration is extreme and tilted toward two agencies. The Department of Veterans Affairs Technology Acquisition Center Austin anchors $739.9 million of the combined potential value across just five awards—almost 73% of Windstream's total federal exposure—while the General Services Administration Federal Acquisition Service accounts for $260.8 million across fifty-two awards. The Department of Justice offices place the highest award count (88 awards spanning US Attorney's Offices and the Drug Enforcement Administration) but represent only $1.2 million in combined potential value, indicating transactional pricing on many small orders. These three customer organizations account for roughly 100% of the combined potential value, with fifty-seven other federal agencies collectively representing negligible exposure. The divergence between award count and potential value is stark: DOJ leads in volume but carries minimal dollar value, while VA and GSA dominate dollars through large parent vehicles.

Windstream's federal footprint is anchored by two major parent vehicles. The GSA Region 4 Integrated Telecom Services II contract carries seventy-six task orders worth $11.4 million in combined potential value, while the National Local Exchange Carrier Services for the Enterprise Next Generation (NLEC-NG) IDIQ—a $721.8 million multiple-award vehicle administered by the VA Technology Acquisition Center—shows four task orders worth $18.1 million. Representative named work includes a $38.6 thousand delivery order under NLEC-NG for voice services (June 2022), a $94.1 thousand purchase order from the Air Force for local and long-distance telecommunications to Nebraska Air National Guard facilities (July 2024), a $40.8 thousand Department of Interior Fish and Wildlife Service order for Ethernet infrastructure upgrade at Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in Georgia (April 2026), and a $20.5 thousand Bureau of Land Management Colorado Region purchase order for Internet service in Santa Fe, New Mexico (September 2026). Category concentration aligns with this commercial carrier profile: the top NAICS code is Wired Telecommunications Carriers (154 awards), and the dominant PSC is IT and Telecom—Telecommunications and Transmission (115 awards).

Recent activity shows sporadic award volume. The past five fiscal years averaged fewer than four awards per year (2021: four; 2022: seven; 2023: one; 2024: four; 2026: two to date), with only three awards completing in the next twenty-four months and carrying negligible recompete risk of $20 thousand combined potential value. Service Contract Inventory data shows Windstream invoiced $11.2 million across thirteen SCI-reportable prime contracts over FY2022–FY2025, with FY2023 invoicing $5.6 million and FY2024 invoicing $5.5 million. Government-paid rates on SCI-reported work ran a median of $3,180.76 per hour, with senior labor pricing through $4,842.33 per hour, consistent with carrier engineering and management services. Windstream operates almost exclusively with internal delivery; across SCI-reportable prime contracts, zero percent of hours were performed by named subcontractors. The vendor subcontracts minimally overall (one percent of all awards): two subcontract tasks for General Dynamics Information Technology, Inc. on Priority Telecommunications Services support (December 2024 and October 2024) and one grant sub-award to Lumpkin County Board of Commissioners for gigabit-speed broadband delivery to 1,846 locations in Georgia (March 2022).