JA - Windstream Legacy NLEC BRIDGE Windstream Final Redacted.pdf

Windstream NLEC Legacy Bridge Control Number VA-21-00032984

JUSTIFICATION FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Procurement, Acquisition, and Logistics

Technology Acquisition Center 23 Christopher Way Eatontown, NJ 07724

2. Description of Action: This proposed action is for issuance of a firm-fixed-price Task Order (TO) issued under the National Local Exchange Carrier (NLEC) Next Generation (NG) Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity Contract (IDIQ) with Windstream Nuvox, Inc. 2 North Main Street Greenville, SC 29601 for LEC telecommunication data services on a sole source basis.

3. Description of Supplies or Services: The VA Office of Information and Technology (OI&T) Telecommunications Provisioning Office (TPO) office has a requirement for the uninterrupted continuation of LEC voice and data telecommunications services (e.g. Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) lines, Primary Rate Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) lines, Direct Inward Dialing/Direct Outward Dialing (DID/DOD) lines, Metro Ethernet services, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)) and features for existing LEC services deployed to 526 Service Delivery Points (SDPs) at VA facilities throughout the contiguous 48 United States. These services are currently being provided for on multiple competitively awarded TOs, issued under the legacy NLEC IDIQ, that are set to expire January 31, 2021. The period of performance for this proposed action is three months, with a total estimated value of .

4. Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting an exception to fair opportunity is Section 41 U.S.C. 4106(c)(2) as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B), entitled “Only one awardee is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services ordered are unique or highly specialized.”

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: Windstream is the current provider of services for the 526 SDPs included within this requirement and therefore only Windstream Government Services is capable of providing the seamless continuity of NLEC data and voice services within VA’s required timeframe.

VA awarded six NLEC-NG IDIQ base contracts on September 29, 2020. The existing NLEC footprint is currently covered under VA legacy NLEC TOs through January 31, 2021. VA is currently finalizing its requirements and will be imminently issuing solicitations to compete nine TO’s under this vehicle that will assume the LEC footprint and provide continued voice and data telecommunications services for the VAMCs across the enterprise. Specifically, the LEC Telecommunication data services under this proposed action will be covered under the forthcoming nine competitive TO’s on a regional basis. However, due to the type and complexity of services that are currently in place, no other vendor, other than the proposed source, can transition and provide these services effective February 1, 2021, after the existing orders expire on January 31, 2021.

As previously mentioned, award of the nine competitive TOs will be administered on a regional basis. This new structure would require a transition period for any awardee, even an incumbent. VA anticipates that the transition period would take a minimum of approximately three months to complete for a new vendor based on historical data. This three-month transition-in period would include preparation, categorization, and prioritization for services to be transitioned, and determination of whether these can be handed as “soft transitions” or are require additional support, as well as exaction of the transfer of services. VA defines soft transitions as a combination of administrative documentation utilizing the existing service offering and/or a “hot cut” of services to the new vendor. Full transitions would include performing site surveys to determine if transitioning a SDP has limitations such as cabling and outside plant capacity, and potential environmental and weather conditions. Site Surveys include technicians deploying to each SDP to inventory existing outdoor technology, indoor cable paths, conduit capacities and telecommunications room readiness. Once these preparation services are completed, the vendor must then execute upon the planning activities outlined above to include the potential physical tasks of converting each SDP to its network.

Additionally, the awardee must also act as the agent for the VA to obtain the telephone numbers from the incumbent, which based on historical experience during the life of the legacy NLEC TOs, could take upwards of a month, depending on the willingness of the incumbent contractor. Because of the magnitude of the potential effort to accomplish these tasks for the 526 SDPs included within this requirement, VA anticipates that the aforementioned activities would take a minimum of 3 months. This estimate is based on similar size efforts of transition-in efforts.

The above timeline assumes that all activities occur as anticipated.

As such, should VA be unable to contract for this bridge effort to maintain the existing LEC services, VA telecommunications would be unable to properly function, and lines would not be under contract to be maintained. This would significantly increase the risk to its mission of providing care to the Veteran. The ability for the Veteran population to call their providers to schedule appointments, check on medications, participate in scheduled Telehealth appointments and receive emerging COVID-19 vaccines would be, at a minimum, severely hampered. It is likely, however, that Veterans would be cut off from care completely which would produce catastrophic effects and potentially death. The only avenue to avoid these risks is through this bridge effort to maintain the existing LEC services in place.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in the market research section of this document. This effort did not yield any additional sources that can meet the Government’s requirements within the timelines described in section 5. There is no competition anticipated for this specific bridge requirement. In accordance with FAR 5.301 and 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D), the award notice for this action will be synopsized on Contract Opportunities and the justification will be made publicly available within 14 days of award.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: The NLEC NG IDIQ contract has been competitively awarded and VA will imminently be competing and awarding TO efforts under the NLEC-NG vehicle to support the forward-looking requirements. This sole source effort will act as a bridge between the expiring legacy NLEC TOs and the new anticipated NLEC-NG TO awards. As services are transitioned to the potential new vendor, those services will be descoped from this effort.

8. Market Research: The Government’s technical experts conducted market research in January 2021. Specifically, the technical experts reviewed the technical requirements and implementation timelines and other vendors who provide similar LEC services. Though other vendors provide similar services, as noted in section 5 of this document, no source other than the incumbent can provide the seamless and continued LEC services required to bridge the gap between expiring legacy NLEC TOs and the new anticipated NLEC-NG TO awards.

9. Other Facts: None

10. Technical and Requirements Certification: I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance, which are included in this justification, are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

11. Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination: I hereby determine that the anticipated price to the Government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable based on pre-negotiated rates for the basic NLEC-NG IDIQ contract.

12. Procuring Contracting Officer Certification: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Approval

In my role as procuring activity Advocate for Competition, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the acquisition of a firm-fixed-price TO issued under the NLEC-NG IDIQ with Windstream, on an other than full and open competition basis pursuant to the statutory authority cited in Section 4 above, subject to availability of funds, and provided that the property and services herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.