The Universal Telecommunications Network (UTN) was created to analyze, plan, and implement a new corporate data network backbone for providing its customers with more secure, robust, and flexible telecommunications capabilities and enhanced network support services.

UTN works collaboratively with USDA agencies and offices to transform the current USDA telecommunications environment into one that will better meet the delivery challenges of today and tomorrow.

Recent trends toward globalization, advances in secure communications, and growing customer expectations that electronic access will be made more widely available by the Federal Government within a five-year time span have prompted the Department to assess its current state of infrastructure support and explore options for accommodating these future trends as we move further into this century. The Universal Telecommunications Network Project is designed to meet those challenges.

http://www.ocio.usda.gov/tso/utn_index.html