Other Telecommunications

Four awards, $1.13 billion obligated

The arithmetic is blunt. $1,134,002,596.28 divided by 4 awards is about $283.5 million per action. That is not a typical purchase-order size. It is the signature of a residual telecom code holding a few large instruments. SpendingVault still presents 517910 as an industry because USAspending tagged those four actions to this NAICS. The rollup is not smoothed or withheld for looking “too concentrated.”

With only four rows, any single modification can swing the $1,134,002,596.28 total by a large percentage. Readers watching this code over time should expect jumpy series. That volatility is a property of a four-award set, not a flaw in the display. Open the industry page and read the four actions rather than treating the billion-dollar headline as a diversified market.

What “other telecommunications” means as a NAICS residual

Census uses 517910 for telecommunications activities not classified in the more specific carrier and reselling codes. Wired carriers, wireless carriers, and satellite telecommunications have their own six-digit homes. “Other” is the remainder. Federal contracting officers assign it when that residual is the best match for the vendor’s primary industry. It is not a synonym for “all telecom the government buys.”

Wired telecommunications carriers in this same slice, for example, show thousands of awards. 517910 shows four. Those are different industries in the NAICS system even if a lay reader would call both “telecom.” Do not add them together and call the sum unique dollars without checking for overlapping awards—and do not assume 517910 is the bigger operational story just because the four-award average is huge.

Questions

How much federal contract spending is coded to other telecommunications?

NAICS 517910 shows $1,134,002,596.28 in obligations on 4 USAspending contract awards. That is a highly concentrated residual code, not a catalog of small telecom orders. The unit is obligations, not outlays. Quote it as USAspending contract obligations tagged to NAICS 517910, not as cash outlays. Assistance awards may not carry NAICS, so grants remain outside the 4-award extract behind $1,134,002,596.28.

Why are there only four awards in NAICS 517910?

The code is a Census residual for telecommunications not classified in more specific carrier NAICS. Only 4 tagged contract actions sit in this extract, and they carry $1,134,002,596.28. Wired and wireless carrier codes can have thousands of awards in parallel.

Is the $1.13 billion already paid to telecom vendors?

It is obligated on the four tagged awards, not necessarily disbursed. Outlays follow invoicing and can differ after modifications. This guide cites the packet obligation total only. That pattern is four large residual telecom instruments, with about $283.5 million per action as the simple average of $1,134,002,596.28 over 4 awards. Read the four actions in full before charting the industry as a market.

Do broadband grants show up under 517910?

Usually not. Assistance awards may not carry NAICS, so they are outside these 4 contract actions. Use program pages for grant-funded telecom and the industry hub for the tagged contracts behind $1,134,002,596.28. This industry guide covers tagged contracts only: $1,134,002,596.28 obligated on 4 other telecommunications awards in USAspending. Outlays are a different field; assistance without NAICS is a different award type.