To meet the U.S. government's cybersecurity requirements, Qwest says it is using its MPLS transport infrastructure to move federal network traffic into special CyberCenters, where the traffic will pass through secure, redundant gateways including Einstein systems. In these CyberCenters, Qwest will apply managed security services including firewall policy enforcement, IDS, antivirus, antispam and e-mail scanning.

"The whole MTIPS initiative is about taking our civilian agencies and getting them up to the level of the intelligence community and the Defense Department" in terms of cybersecurity, says Diana Gowen, senior vice president and general manager of Qwest Government Services.

Gowen says Qwest is building out secure enclaves in its network and deploying Einstein and other security gateways.

"We should have most of what we need to do from a hardware and equipment perspective racked, stacked and tested by July," Gowen says, adding that the U.S. government will then certify and accredit the carrier's MTIPS services. "Our plan is to be done by the end of the third quarter, and then we can provide services to the government in...October."

Qwest has a handful of customers including several Treasury Department agencies already signed up for its MTIPS services.