Verizon has been selected by the Australian Federal Police to supply a managed gateway service for the agency’s IT systems.

Under the terms of the deal, Verizon will supply the AFP and its client agencies — the Australian Crime Commission, the CRIMTRAC Agency, the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Center and the Commonwealth Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions — with a dual Internet gateway service. It will provide intrusion detection and firewall management, anti-spam and anti-virus management, VPN management and DOS Protection with IPv6-capable bandwidth. With management fully outsourced to Verizon, Verizon will also staff a local contact center that will provide 24/7 support.

The three-year,  $14 million agreement is in line with the Australian federal government’s gateway reduction program, led by the Department of Finance. Under the program, the government is reducing its Internet gateways to eight from 124 over four years, from 2010 to 2014.