Redacted_JA_to_Post_20131125.pdf

NS/EP PTS

J&A - JA13-102

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND

OPEN COMPETITION (OTFAOC)

Purchase Request Number:

Contract Number: HC1013-14-C-0001, HC1013-14-C-0002, HC1013-14-C-

0003 – 3 contracts to be awarded Task/Delivery Order Number: N/A Procurement Title: National Security/Emergency Preparedness (NS/EP)

Priority Telecommunication Service (PTS) with AT&T Corp, Sprint and Verizon Business

Contracting Office: Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization (DITCO)-Scott, Systems Section (PL8223) Estimated Value:

Statutory Authority: 10 United States Code (U.S.C.) 2304(c)(1) and Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 6.302-1

OTFAOC

Justification for OTFAOC Number: JA13-102

Upon the basis of the following justification, I, as Senior Procurement Executive, hereby approve the use of OTFAOC of the proposed contractual action pursuant to the authority of 10 U.S.C.

2304(c)(1), FAR Part 6.302-1.

JUSTIFICATION

1. REQUIRING AGENCY AND CONTRACTING OFFICE:

a. Agency:

Department of Homeland Security (DHS)/Office of Emergency Communications (OEC), formerly the National Communications System (NCS) 4601 N. Fairfax Dr.

Arlington, VA 22004

b. Contracting Activity:

Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA)/DITCO/PL8223 2300 East Dr., Bldg. 3600 Scott AFB, IL 62225-5406

2. NATURE/DESCRIPTION OF ACTIONS:

The existing 10-year firm fixed price (FFP) contracts with MCI Communication Services, Inc.

doing business as (dba) Verizon Business Services, AT&T Corporation and Sprint Communications Company, LP for National Security/Emergency Preparedness (NS/EP) Priority Telecommunication Service (PTS) expire on February 28, 2014. This acquisition is for the award of new 10-year FFP contracts with Verizon Business, AT&T and Sprint for continuation of critical NS/EP telecommunications services in accordance with Defense FAR Supplement (DFARS) 239-7405. Since 1993, the Government has invested to enhance the commercially owned public switched network (PSN) infrastructure to provide essential priority emergency communications to NS/EP users to respond to, and recover from, natural and man-made disasters. The new contracts will provide for continuation of PTS foundational underpinning services and primary component projects consisting of the Government Emergency Telecommunications Service (GETS), Special Routing and Arrangement Service (SRAS), and Next Generation Networks (NGN) Priority Service (PS). Additionally, this effort consolidates two PTS components (GETS local exchange carrier (LEC) and wireless priority service (WPS)) to provide end-to-end NS/EP priority service on the networks of the Interexchange Carriers (IXC) who are Verizon Business, AT&T, and Sprint.

The effort being acquired is for continuation of PTS and NGN PS support from March 1, 2014 to February 28, 2024, with a 1-year period of performance for the base year plus nine 1-year options.

3. DESCRIPTION OF SUPPLIES/SERVICES:

PTS is a White House directed program that leverages the commercially owned PSN to provide specially designed telecommunications services to the NS/EP user community during natural or man-made disasters when conventional communications services are ineffective. In addition to enhancing critical infrastructure protection, these telecommunication services are used to coordinate response and recovery efforts and, in severe conditions. The three proposed contract awards satisfy critical NS/EP requirements identified in Executive Order 13618 and National Security Decision Directive 97.

The PTS is an “always on” (24/7) nationwide prioritized service contracted from the public switched carriers Verizon Business, AT&T, and Sprint -- in the case of GETS, PTS is personal identification number (PIN) authenticated. PINs are a 12-digit access number assigned to each subscriber to be dialed in after prompting by the switch. No additional subscriber information is disclosed. This service supports call originations after authentication, with priority handling in the access, transport, and egress segments of the IXC networks of Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint.

To achieve enhanced call completion under damaged network conditions, PTS supports special network management controls that enable fault tolerance, alternate routing and other survivability features. FFP contracts for the PTS and special subscriber services, such as trouble reporting and help desk-type support, ensure a high level of readiness as it cannot be pre-determined when crisis or emergency situations will occur resulting in degraded PSN. WPS users have specially registered handsets that enable priority handling in the radio access portion of the network while the three carriers employ unique call processing through priority handling features that are transparent to the users.

These new proposed sole source awards to Verizon Business, AT&T, and Sprint for continuity of NS/EP priority telecommunications in the three carrier networks allow the Government to continue leveraging the PSN to utilize existing and future NS/EP infrastructure enhancements for essential emergency communications to coordinate responses to man-made or natural disasters.

The purpose for awarding three separate contracts is to ensure redundancy within GETS so that if congestion or blocking is encountered in one network, the call can be automatically routed through another network.

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Specifically, PTS enhances the ability of NS/EP users to complete calls during crisis or emergency situations that result in degraded PSN using any of the following four PTS components: 1) GETS, a ubiquitous nationwide landline telephone service that provides priority NS/EP telecommunications for the President, Congress, Federal, State and local Governments, and industry organizations during periods of network stress by utilizing the existing PSN augmented by NS/EP enhancements; 2) WPS, a nationwide wireless telephone service that complements and interoperates with GETS and provides end-to-end priority NS/EP telecommunications via selected commercial wireless carriers, thereby enhancing the probability of call completion; 3) At lower levels of SRAS capability, Verizon Business, Sprint, and AT&T provide support related to number translation as defined in the performance work statement.

SRAS Level 2 will be an optional contract line item number in the new AT&T contract; and 4) NGN PS, the program is based on PTS technology insertion to transition the legacy priority service capabilities to the carrier’s commercial packet switch networks to keep pace with the evolving PSN.

Table 1 provides a description of the supplies and services to be acquired from each contract.

Table 1 – Description of Supplies/Services Contract Actions

Sprint Contract

AT&T

Contract

Verizon Business Contract

Contract type (e.g., time and materials, fixed-price, etc.)

FFP FFP FFP

Contractor

Sprint AT&T Verizon Business

Description of supply/service GETS, SRAS, WPS &

NGN

Service

GETS,

SRAS,

WPS &

NGN

Service

GETS,

SRAS,

WPS &

NGN

Service

Date of award 03/01/2014 03/01/2014 03/01/2014 Period of performance (start and end date)

03/01/2014- 02/28/2024

03/01/2014- 02/28/2024

03/01/2014- 02/28/2024

Performance based? (Y/N) Yes Yes Yes Competitively awarded?

(Y/N)

No No No

Awarded to a small business concern? (FAR Part 19) (Y/N)

No No No

4. IDENTIFICATION OF STATUTORY AUTHORITY:

Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements, 10 U.S.C.2304(c)(1). (FAR 6.302-1/DFARS 206.302-1).

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5. DEMONSTRATION OF CONTRACTORS’ UNIQUE QUALIFICATIONS:

(a) Description of events.

Based on the White House endorsement of the 1990 Panel of Experts Report, DITCO on behalf of OEC, then the NCS, entered into three IXC contracts in 1993 to acquire PSN enhancements for GETS from Verizon Business (formerly MCI), AT&T, and Sprint. The decision to base GETS and the resulting PTS on the commercial PSN involved leveraging the commercially owned PSN to provide a survivable and robust solution for meeting NS/EP telecommunications requirements while also obtaining a cost-effective solution. Subsequent GETS follow-on sole source contracts were awarded in 2004 to Verizon Business, AT&T, and Sprint. All current contracts have a performance period of 10-years, including all option periods. These contracts recognized the need to expand NGN that requires the migration of GETS, SRAS, and WPS from the then circuit-based networks to the upcoming IP/packet-based networks to keep pace with PSN evolution.

(b) Justification:

(1) Minimum Government requirements. Operation, administration, maintenance, and provisioning of existing GETS, SRAS, and WPS, and development and deployment of NGN enhancements to support migration of GETS, SRAS, and WPS from circuit-based network technology to an IP/packet-based platform is needed to protect previous government investments and to provide for continuity of services as the PSN evolves to IP networks.

(2) Proposed sole source contractors. Verizon Business, AT&T, and Sprint are uniquely qualified to support this effort since the OEC leverages these three commercial networks to obtain survivable PTS for NS/EP users by making infrastructure enhancements to each network. Failure to contract for this support would leave the Government with a major NS/EP telecommunications shortfall as GETS, SRAS, and WPS would cease to operate on the networks.

(3) Discussion regarding cause of the sole source situation. As stated in paragraph 5(a), the White House endorsement of the 1990 Panel of Experts Report led to sole source contracts with Verizon Business, AT&T, and Sprint to obtain a survivable and robust nationwide solution for supporting NS/EP telecommunications requirements that was based on leveraging the commercially owned PSN.

(4) Demonstration of unique source. The 2010 NGN Alternatives Analysis concluded that contracting with multiple nationwide long distance carriers is the only effective approach for providing NS/EP priority telecommunications services that meet survivability and nationwide coverage requirements.

(5) Procurement discussion. The effort being proposed is for the continued operation, administration, maintenance, and provisioning of GETS, SRAS, and WPS; plus development and deployment of NGN enhancements for voice over IP and voice over long term evolution.

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(6) Impact. The United States Government relies on NS/EP priority telecommunications to coordinate response and recovery. Award of a GETS IXC contract to contractors other than Verizon Business, AT&T, and Sprint reduces the transmission coverage thereby degrading NS/EP telecommunications and reducing the probability of call completion. Degraded NS/EP telecommunications would cripple national leadership’s ability to communicate, thus severely impacting COOP. The current contracts with AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon Business provide robust and survivable nationwide networks that the Government has leveraged by enhancing the infrastructure in fulfillment of NS/EP requirements. Award of a GETS IXC contract to an IXC other than Verizon Business, AT&T, and Sprint reduces the IXC transmission coverage thereby reducing the probability of call completion during man-made or natural disasters.

6. FEDERAL BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES (FBO) ANNOUNCEMENT/POTENTIAL

SOURCES:

A synopsis detailing the intent to issue three sole source contracts will be posted in the FBO.

The approval authority will be advised of any responses to the synopsis.

The justification for OTFAOC is based on industry responses to DHS Request for Information (RFI) (RFI-12-OPO-083112) that was published in FBO in September 2012. DHS requested updated information related to the current GETS, WPS, SRAS and NGN services in order to improve the transition processes leading to service based acquisition processes for NGN.

The review of the responses to the RFI for the GETS IXC contracts indicated that the Government needs to continue to request the approval to enter into sole source contracts to retain PTS with the current contractors.

7. DETERMINATION OF FAIR AND REASONABLE COST:

In accordance with FAR 15.4, the contracting officer will rely upon information other than cost and pricing data, price comparisons and pricing set by law or regulation to ensure that the cost to the Government is fair and reasonable. In addition, the contractor’s proposed costs are subject to review by DITCO cost/price analysts, audit by Defense Contract Audit Agency auditors, and proposed subcontract costs are subject to field pricing reviews. Proposed labor hours will be subject to technical evaluation. These methods will provide the contracting officer with adequate information to ensure that the cost to the government for this acquisition will be fair and reasonable. There are existing commercial components in the carrier networks that could be utilized as-is with minor modifications to provide the complete NS/EP telecommunications service. OEC has historic cost data for similar development services with the carriers and their vendors that provide similar support where those costs can be used as a basis for determination of fair and reasonableness.

8. MARKET RESEARCH:

Market research included in the RFI response assessments identified in Section 6 and OEC’s daily contact with the telecommunications industry confirms that the Government can only operate, administer, maintain, develop, and deploy NS/EP enhancements to Verizon Business, Page 5 of 7 Pages

AT&T, and Sprint Networks through sole source contracts. OEC’s on-going market research verifies that there have been no significant changes in the telecommunications since the issuance of the RFIs to revise the identity of the service providers that can support this requirement. As stated above, the justification for OTFAOC is based on industry responses to DHS RFI (RFI-12- OPO-083112) that was published in the FBO in September 2012.

9. ANY OTHER SUPPORTING FACTS:

None.

10. LISTING OF INTERESTED SOURCES:

AT&T Corporation, Sprint Communications Company, LP, and MCI Communication Services, Inc. dba Verizon Business Services.

11. ACTIONS THE AGENCY MAY TAKE TO REMOVE OR OVERCOME BARRIERS

THAT LED TO THE EXCEPTION TO FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION:

(a) Procurement History.

(1) Contract number and recent modifications: HC1013-04-C-5001, HC1013-04-C-5002, and HC1013-04-C-5003 were awarded in 2004 as follows: based on a justification for OTFAOC approved on April 3, 2003. Section 3, Table 1 provides the procurement history for these three contracts. These contract currently provide 24/7 support to the PTS. Also, reference Section 3, Description of Supplies/Services.

(2) Competitive status of these actions: The current contract and all modifications were based on justification for OTFAOC approved on April 3, 2003 by James D. Bryan, Major General, and the DISA Senior Procurement Executive, to sustain and preserve government NS/EP investments for obtaining PTS on these networks.

(b) As stated above, the current contracts were awarded through justification and approval as

OTFAOC. It is not possible to remove barriers to competition without disclosing proprietary carrier network architecture, technology, and processing information associated with the proposal. This requirement for continuation of NS/EP PTS must be awarded to the existing IXCs. This plan relies on White House approval of an acquisition strategy based on leveraging the commercially owned assets of the PSN to provide the Government with a cost-effective, robust and survivable nationwide network capable of supporting NS/EP user requirements. The 2010 NGN Alternatives Analysis revealed that leveraging the PSN is still the most effective approach for providing NS/EP PTS.

12. REFERENCE TO THE APPROVED ACQUISITION PLAN (AP):

The NS/EP PS AP is being coordinated and will be submitted for approval to the Senior Procurement Executive.

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TECHNICAL CERTIFICATION: I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance which are included in the J&A are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

NAME: SIGNATURE:__________________________

(Print/Type)

TITLE/ORGANIZATION: OEC/Contracting Officer Representative

PHONE:

DATE:___September 30, 2013__________________

REQUIREMENTS CERTIFICATION: I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance which are included in the J&A are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

NAME: _ ___ SIGNATURE: _______________________

(Print/Type)

TITLE/ORGANIZATION: _ OEC/Chief, Communications Portfolio Management

PHONE: _______________

DATE: ____September 30, 2013____

CONTRACTING OFFICER CERTIFICATION: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

NAME: ARTHUR L. KRUSE SIGNATURE: _______________________

Contracting Officer

TITLE/ORGANIZATION: _DITCO/PL8223__ PHONE: 618-229-9773_

DATE: ____ September 30, 2013____

SENIOR PROCUREMENT EXECUTIVE APPROVAL: I have reviewed this justification and find it to be accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

NAME: ______________________ SIGNATURE: _______________________

Senior Procurement Executive DATE

ALL QUESTIONS REGARDING THIS JUSTIFICATION ARE TO BE REFERRED TO

Arthur L. Kruse, Contracting Officer, arthur.l.kruse.civ@mail.mil, telephone 618-229-9773 or Angela K. Zang, Contract Specialist, angela.k.zang.civ@mail.mil, telephone 618-229-9435.

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