Growth in the Federal Mobility Market

In the public sector, mobile solutions help improve operations and expand agency outreach. Whether used in the battlefield, to conduct critical telehealth visits, assist intelligence and law enforcement analysts in the field, or record the nation’s decennial census, mobile solutions have a tremendous role in the federal space.

While past federal spending on mobile good and services increased at a steady rate, a look at agency investments from FY 2019-2021 tell a different story. Federal agencies spent $2.3B in mobility-related contract obligations in FY 2019, increasing 34% to $3.0B in FY 2022.

Some of the driving factors for this time frame certainly include the COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to remote work at agencies. Additional drivers of the mobility market include transitions to the EIS contract and 5G implementation. Moreover, agencies are investing to mitigate the cyber challenges mobile technologies present. Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions, for example, are being implemented at agencies at the enterprise level. MDM solution capabilities include registering a user’s device, pushing out security policies, managing the device’s operation system, and remote encryption and wiping.  

The Federal Mobility Group (FMG) under the federal CIO Council is also a driving factor in mobility spend. FMG objectives include enabling government adoption of secure mobile technologies through published guidance, and addressing mobility gaps and priorities throughout federal agencies.

Below is a closer look at federal mobility spending in the last three full fiscal years, where contract obligations were identified and analyzed to identify spending in mobility goods and services.

Sources: FPDS, Deltek

Observations:

• Civilian spending on mobile products and services grew 51% from FY 2019 to 2021 and totaled $4.4B. Defense investment also grew, albeit at a slower pace, with 17% from FY 2019 to 2021 and totaled $3.8B
• Top contract vehicle used in federal mobility spending in the three-year period include GSA Consolidated Multiple Award Schedule ($1.2B), SEWP V ($843M), and Networx ($536M)
• Reporting COVID-related mobility spending in FY 2020 and 2021 totaled $84M and included task orders in areas such as Mobile Test and Measurement Tools (MTMT), acquisition of handheld mobile devices, additional data and voice services to support increased teleworking, and COVID-related mobile applications
• Mobility-related products and services grew in the three-year time frame, with services increasing 32% from $1.6B to $2.2B, and product investment increasing 40% from $623M to $869M
• Apple led in device types among federal agencies in the three-year period totaling $169M, followed by Blackberry ($72M), Microsoft ($39M), Google ($17M) and Samsung ($6M)

Sources: FPDS, Deltek

Observations:

• Fluctuations exist at the agency level within the three-year time frame, revealing that mobility spending trends remain largely driven by agency tech refresh cycles. 
• Top Air Force spending in mobility include acquisition in data services ($413M), Advance Narrowband Digital Voice Terminal ($209M) and mobile sensors ($100M) 
• VA spending jumped from $187M in FY 2019 to $480M in FY 2022 due to a tech refresh cycle at the agency in FY 2020 and 2021 to attain new end user hardware such as tablets 
• Top fourth-estate agencies that led DOD mobility spending at DOD from FY 2019-2021 include DISA ($457M), DARPA ($147M) and DHA ($145M)
• Army increased mobility spending in the three-year period by 23%, driven by purchases from the Army Materiel Command ($121M), followed by the Army Cyber Command ($116M) with purchases of telephone services in FY 2020 and FY 2021
• Justice accelerated in mobility spending, increasing 117% from FY 2019 to 2022 driven by a $52M task order in FY 2021 for a Wi-Fi upgrade at the Bureau of Prisons, a $17M task order in FY 2021 for mobile radios at the FBI, and a $13M order in FY 2020 for wireless services at the FBI

Moving forward, as agencies adjust to the “new normal” of remote and hybrid frameworks, CIO shops will look to strengthen network and device infrastructure and begin to explore increased BYOD solutions as well as communications platforms beyond common video conferencing software, to implement modernized communication technologies and improve performance. Some agencies, particularly prompted by the pandemic to rapidly deploy devices to users, are deviating from standard mobile hardware leasing and towards Device-as-a-Service models, saving time and money. Standards activities for 5G implementation are underway for agencies as federal test beds navigate the technology’s safe implementation and applicable use cases. Naturally, 5G adoption will continue to increase agency purchase of related software and hardware in the forthcoming future.