Federal obligations in other telecommunications (NAICS 517910)

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.

Obligations versus cash on large telecom vehicles

Large telecommunications contracts often obligate a ceiling or a multi-year vehicle while invoices hit over the performance period. The $1,134,002,596.28 is committed value on the four tagged awards. Outlays can be lower, later, or split. A de-obligation on one of the four rows would move the industry total immediately in the obligation ledger and only later, if at all, in cash paid.

Assistance awards may not carry NAICS. Universal service, broadband grants, and similar assistance streams typically will not appear in this four-award contract total even when they are the larger public-policy dollar story. Use program pages for those questions.

A complete citation of this industry is $1,134,002,596.28 in USAspending contract obligations tagged to NAICS 517910, other telecommunications, on 4 awards. Anything less—dropping the NAICS, dropping the word obligations, or dropping the contract-only universe—overstates what the extract contains. The packet facts do not include a fiscal year, so this guide does not invent one. Live tables on the industry hub can move when USAspending posts modifications; the harvested pair remains $1,134,002,596.28 and 4.

How to read a four-row industry page

Start with the award list, not with a percentage-of-portfolio chart. Four rows can be listed in full on the other telecommunications industry page. Confirm the NAICS tag on each. Then decide whether 517910 answers your research question or whether a more specific carrier code does. This guide’s allowed facts remain $1,134,002,596.28 and 4.

Classification errors are expected at the margin. Vendors that straddle wired carriers (517111), wireless carriers, and satellite codes may land in 517910 on some actions and in a neighbor on others. Wired telecommunications carriers in this slice show 4,182 awards; 517910 shows four. The public-record stance is to keep $1,134,002,596.28 attached to 517910 as tagged, then read the four actions in full before charting the industry as a market. Re-tagging the extract by hand is out of scope for this overlay.

Source and limits

Source is USAspending.gov contract awards. No fiscal year is stated because none is in the packet. No vendor names are invented. Residual-code and assistance-without-NAICS caveats apply. The all-industries directory is the place to compare neighboring 517xxx codes without treating 517910 as a complete telecom budget.

Four-row residuals move when one award changes

Award count interprets the buying pattern. 4 actions producing $1,134,002,596.28 is four large residual telecom instruments, with about $283.5 million per action as the simple average. That average hides mix: modifications, options, and delivery orders all increment count. 4 is not a count of unique companies and not a count of physical units. Use the hub amount sort to see whether a few large rows plus a long tail make up most of the tagged total.

Outlays remain a separate USAspending concept. An agency can obligate $1,134,002,596.28 across 4 tagged other telecommunications actions and pay on a different calendar. De-obligations after cancellations reduce the obligation ledger; they do not rewrite the fact that this NAICS has been a large tagged category in the harvest. Assistance without NAICS still sits outside even when the real-world activity looks similar. Program pages answer the grant question; this page answers the tagged-contract question.

Internal links on this file point only to the other telecommunications industry page and the all-industries directory. Those are the packet hrefs. Neighboring industry codes mentioned in prose are classification context only. Source note, copied from the packet: NAICS from USAspending contract awards. Assistance awards may not carry NAICS. The overlay’s job is to state $1,134,002,596.28, 4, the obligation unit, and the boundary around wired carriers (517111), wireless carriers, and satellite codes.

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.