Telecommunications

Purpose

Telecommunications provide the Department of the Interior (DOI) and other supported federal agencies, tribal nations, and insular areas with information technology (IT) connectivity and/or services for the delivery of video, voice and data to meet the Department's mission. Telecommunications support extends to over 3000 sites throughout all 50 states and at other locations from the US Virgin Islands westward to Palau, and from Alaska to American Samoa in the Southern Hemisphere. DOI’s locations include some of the most remote and challenging locations to ensure connectivity, with the added complexity of not detracting from the pristine, natural surroundings that we all enjoy.  It consists of three primary operational functions - each of which serves as a key link in supporting mission requirements across the Department.  The three functions are:

Voice Services

Voice services throughout the Department are handled by a number of offices, depending on the specific needs of the locations and/or the mission requirements. Voice services performed within the Office of the Chief Information Officer include:

• Managing the voice network that supports all DOI bureaus and offices within the headquarters building in Washington DC
• Managing voice support for critical locations in Virginia, Colorado, and Arizona
• Supporting and/or managing audio bridge conferencing, video teleconferencing, 1-800 numbers, cellular phones, billing, etc.

 Network Services

Network Services provides the backbone architecture that connects to the Internet in order to exchange information across the Department.  Network services performed within the Office of the Chief Information Officer include: 

• Managing network gateways/Trusted Internet Connections in five states supporting the needs of over 300,000 DOI employees and volunteers.
• Coordinating support for the "last mile" connectivity to more than 2000 National Parks, Wildlife Refuges, National Monuments, fish hatcheries, other units and scientific sensors located in all 50 states.
• Providing WiFi connectivity and management at several DOI locations. 
• Overseeing overall IT availability, status, mitigation, and restoration efforts during natural disasters and other national crises
• Supporting over 50 federal agencies and 300,000 employees across the US government with secure IT to deliver over $25 billion in annual payroll, to conduct official government travel, to give human resource assistance, and to provide other essential services.

Radio Communicatrions & Spectrum Services 

Radio Communications & Spectrum services at DOI are essential for successful field operations that range from law enforcement activities to wildfire response coordination with other federal, state, and local authorities to first responder support during national emergencies. Services performed within the Office of the Chief Information Officer include:

• Manage technical services, enterprise contracts, and develop radio standards and architecture
• Operate the National Radio Laboratory for testing performance, interoperability, software update validations
• Support for radio systems used by the Secretary and other ranking officials in the Department
• Manage, allocation and interference deconfliction of all radio frequencies used by DOI customers, insular areas, and supported external customers. This includes incident/emergency support for wildland fires, hurricanes, floods, etc. 
• Coordination of spectrum and radio sharing with federal, state, local, and international agencies.