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The Marine Corps is Upgrading Connectivity at its Recruiting Centers

The service selected telecommunications company MetTel to provide new broadband Internet infrastructure.

The U.S. Marine Corps is replacing some of its aging infrastructure at its recruiting centers to improve connectivity and support Internet of Things devices, making the recruiting process easier. Marine Corps recruits with the India Company, 3rd Recruit Training Battalion, prepare for initial drill evaluations on Parris Island, South Carolina, last fall. Credit: U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Dana Beesley.

The Marine Corps is replacing aging communications technology at its U.S recruiting centers and has selected New-York-based MetTel to provide the improved infrastructure. MetTel will upgrade the service’s aging T-1 transmission lines with high speed broadband.

“We are putting broadband Internet services into 1,500 of their recruiting stations,” said Diana Gowen, general manager and senior vice president, MetTel Federal. “Compared to what they had previously, they're saving about 70% in telecommunications costs.”

The new high bandwidth infrastructure enables download speeds of up to 25 megabits per second (Mbps), a great improvement from the previous rate of 1.5 Mbps, she noted. The new infrastructure also will offer wireless connectivity to support the recruiters’ Internet of Things devices, Gown added.

The Marines asked the Defense Information Technology Contracting Office (DITCO) at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois to complete the award over General Service Administration’s (GSA’s) Schedule 70 as a small business set aside, Gowen clarified. In 2017, the company was selected to be a small business vendor on GSA’s Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions vehicle and was able to win the Marines’ competitive solicitation.

In addition to the continental United States, the infrastructure improvements will apply to Marine Corps recruiting centers in Puerto Rico, Guam and American Samoa, she said. The Navy also requested that the company add similar infrastructure to some of their recruiting locations. “The Navy, it turned out, had about 100 locations where they were going to lose service entirely,” Gowen explained.

MetTel also is supplying help-desk services and carrier invoicing and billing oversight over the five-year contract, “to further helping to reduce network downtime while cutting costs and ensuring the Marine Corps Recruiting Command pricing for carrier services is competitive,” according to a company statement.