WASHINGTON -- AT&T announced today that the U.S. General Services Administration has awarded the company a new contract to provide Web hosting and security services for the Federal Government's preeminent and heavily trafficked Web portal, http://www.FirstGov.gov. "We're pleased that the GSA has placed so much trust in AT&T, by utilizing our expertise on FirstGov.gov, a showcase element of the President's 24 e-Government initiatives. AT&T played a key role in the creation of FirstGov.gov, and in the deployment of its improved, robust search engine. We expect to host this citizen-focused portal with the same reliable, robust, and trusted technology that is the hallmark of AT&T services," said Chris Rooney, President of AT&T Government Solutions. Casey Coleman, Chief Technology Officer for GSA's Office of Citizen Services (OCS), said: "The Federal government's e-gov initiatives will be able to use the new OCS / AT&T contract to design, test and deploy a wide range of new services to better serve the citizen." Earlier this year, AT&T's role in the project was expanded when GSA selected the company to provide the site's search capabilities. Using the latest technologies, AT&T worked as the systems integrator to provide an outsourced, hosted solution, deploying a search engine that delivers more relevant results, based on information that can change daily, and accesses information stored in a wider variety of formats. This work was in addition to the design, coding and deployment of the initial FirstGov.gov portal in September 2000. AT&T Corp.