Justification for Other Than Full and Open Competition - Redacted.pdf

Federal Communications Commission Enterprise Acquisition Center

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

IN ACCORDANCE WITH FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION (FAR) 6.302

Procurement Request Title Procurement Request Number Date Approval of the use of other than full and open competition of the proposed contractual action pursuant to the authority of:

FAR 6.302-1 - 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(1), Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency

Requirements FAR 6.302-2 - 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(2), Unusual and Compelling Urgency FAR 6.302-3 - 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(3), Industrial Mobilization; Engineering, Developmental, or Research Capability; or Expert

Services FAR 6.302-4 - 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(4), International Agreement FAR 6.302-5 - 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(5), Authorized or Required by Statute FAR 6.302-6 - 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(6), National Security FAR 6.302-7 - 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(7), Public Interest (NOTE: Requires D&F in lieu of J&A)

(See guidance at the end of this document for completing the following sections.)

1. Identification of the agency and the contracting activity, and specific identification of the document as a "Justification for other than full and open competition."

2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved.

3. A description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency’s needs (including the estimated value) (FAR 6.303-2(b)(3).

Procurement Request Title

4. An identification of the statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition.

5. A demonstration that the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited.

6. A description of efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as is practicable, including whether a notice was or will be publicized as required by subpart 5.2 and, if not, which exception under 5.202 applies.

7. A determination by the contracting officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable.

8. A description of the market research conducted (see part 10) and the results or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted.

9. Any other facts supporting the use of other than full and open competition.

10. A listing of the sources, if any, that expressed, in writing, an interest in the acquisition.

11. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services required.

Certification GUIDANCE: Technical and requirements personnel are required to certify that the supporting data which is their responsibility is complete and accurate. The contracting officer is required to certify that the facts and statements made in the justification are accurate and complete.] Please note that the COR should provide their name below but should not sign until the CO has reviewed the justification and requested signature.

Technical Representative/Contracting Officer Representative (COR) Certification:

I certify that the facts and representations under my cognizance, which are included in this justification and which form a basis for this justification, are complete and accurate.

Name/Title/Office Signature Contracting Officer (CO) Certification and Approval (Actions less than $750K):

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

Name/Title/Office Signature Reviews and Approvals

Competition Advocate Approval (Actions greater than $750K):

Name/Title/Office Signature Head of Procuring Activity Approval (Actions greater than $15M but less than $75M) I certify that the facts and representations under my cognizance, which are included in this Justification and which form a basis for it, are complete and accurate.

Name/Title/Office Signature Senior Procurement Executive (SPE) Approval (Actions greater than $75M) I certify that the facts and representations under my cognizance, which are included in this Justification and which form a basis for it, are complete and accurate.

Name/Title/Office Signature

I have reviewed this justification and find it to be accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

A campaign consists of calls that use a similar script, voice, caller ID number, and/or STIR/SHAKEN attestation indicating that they are likely related. The Enforcement Bureau regularly engages with industry and the public on the latest tools used to identify and combat illegal robocalls. YouMail is an active participant at industry conferences and is a key partner with USTelecom’s Industry Traceback Group (ITG). The ITG is responsible for coordinating private led efforts to trace the origination of suspected illegal robocalls.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau has conducted Market Research and determined that five (5) other companies (Hiya, First Orio, Truecaller, Nomorobo and Robokiller) offer call analytics capabilities to their customers for the purposes of call blocking. While these companies regularly publish data on robocall trends, the FCC has determined they do not provide a more granular and sophisticated analytics about specific calls and how they might be grouped into specific campaigns. For example, these other providers can estimate the total number of “student loan” robocalls reaching consumers in a particular month, but none provide the sophistication to determine whether two student loan calls are related to each other and potentially from the same source.

YouMail has 13 million users feeding data to YouMail’s analytics systems in real time. Only YouMail has a direct relationship with the ITG. Furthermore, YouMail provides its analytics services to commercial clients. We are not aware that any of the five companies provider similar services. YouMail remains the only company that collects and analyzes robocall data in a manner usable for law enforcement activities.

YMPS uses proprietary software to provide protection to its subscribers in the United States from unwanted telecommunications marketers and solicitors. It collects volumes of call data received by its subscribers’ accounts and conducts extensive analyses of the communications data in order to uncover significant details about the call data, which will be relied upon by FCC as evidence to support a sufficiency finding that the identified calls are illegal and/or unlawful communications. The call detail records (CDRs) of voice service providers (VSPs) that originate or transit these robocalls are compared to the actual consumer calls that YouMail, Inc. has answered and saved, which serves as irrefutable evidence of the unlawful activities aided or enabled by originating communication service providers. MPS provides this distinct service and has developed these specialized analytics which are not available otherwise in the marketplace. YMPS is the only company that has the technology to provide these essential services, and the acquisition of them is essential to the FCC’s mission to protect consumers from these prohibited activities.

4 An identification of the statutory authority: The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 41 U.S.C.253(c)(1) as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart:

• 6.302-1 entitled, “Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements.”

3 A description of the supplies or services: This effort is for Briefings, Reports and Data Analysis, and Call & SMS Text Record Evidence Data to include:

In-person briefings will be provided weekly, bi-weekly or monthly;

• The Contractor may provide briefings about “Active Campaigns” and “Mitigated / Inactive Campaigns.”

• Campaign Topics are deemed “Active” or “Mitigated/Inactive” using the following criteria:

o “Active Campaigns” are those where Campaigns are still generating weekly calls or SMS texts of a sufficient volume where 5-100% of the calls or SMS texts are still observed on a week-to-week basis.

o “Mitigated Campaigns” are those where Campaigns have experienced mitigation or enforcement and the weekly volume is below 5% of the pre-mitigation volumes.

o “Inactive Campaigns” are those that have had no active call or text evidence identified within the topic for at least a 30-day period, using the first day of the prior calendar month as the starting date.

• “Active Campaign” Topic briefings are capped during a 90-day period (the first one beginning with the award date of this contract) to the following limits:

o 1 Large Campaign Topic;

o 1 Medium Campaign Topic; and o 1 Small Campaign Topic

• “Mitigated / Inactive Campaign” Topics briefings are capped during a 90-day period (the first one beginning with the award date of this contract) to the following limits:

o 4 Large Campaign Topics;

o 4 Medium Campaign Topics;

o and 4 Small Campaign Topics

• The Campaign Topic Size is determined by using the following criteria:

o Large (composed of up to 21-50 member campaigns);

o Medium (composed of up to 6-20 member campaigns); and o Small (composed of 1-5 member campaigns or less)

• In-Person briefings will be conducted using Microsoft Teams (or similar virtual conference platform utilized by the FCC);

• Briefings shall include the following:

o Intelligence and analytics for recent active Priority Campaigns and newly discovered Campaigns within the Campaign Topics;

o Details for Campaign Topics and Campaigns, including the following: volume; reach; frequency; top originating numbers; top destination geographic areas; potential relationships between Campaigns and Campaign Topics based on content; mannerisms; and operating behavior;

o Data summarizing results of disruption and enforcement on Campaigns (typically a volume reduction or elimination of calls related to those campaigns); and o Non-sensitive, non-Personally Identifying Information (PII), information and summaries about origins of Campaigns such as that available via STIR/SHAKEN authentication data.

Reports & Data Analysis

• The Contractor shall provide reports in PowerPoint/PDF format by email to FCC management, or as otherwise directed by the FCC. All data contained in any report will available on-demand via a web-based portal and/or be downloadable in a CSV or Excel compatible file format.

• The Contractor will review, verify and confirm that all data from any data element, or combination of data elements, shared in Briefings, emailed reports, or available via the web-based portal does not constitute or expose any PII.

Call and SMS Text Record Data

• FCC may identify Campaigns within a Campaign Topic to receive Call Record Evidence Data and/or SMS Text Evidence Data to be used for further analysis, investigation or for traceback purposes.

o Call Record Evidence Data includes called number, calling number, call date and time and time zone, display name, actual caller name value, Campaign Identifier, text transcription, and audio recording.

o SMS Text Record Evidence Data includes the number texted, originating text number or short code, text date and time and time zone, display name, actual texter name value, Campaign Identifier, and text transcription.

• Call Record Evidence Data and Text Record Evidence Date represents individual calls and texts received by real consumers, and neither of these records, or any part thereof, shall contain any PII (Personally Identifying Information) about the identify of recipients.

o The Contractor will provide Call Record Evidence Data and SMS Text record Evidence Data as an automated, real-time RESTful API and a JSON format, which can be accessed directly by FCC staff or FCC can request data be provided to any other authorized recipient of this data (such as an authorized tracedback consortium).

o The Contractor shall make Call Record Evidence Data and SMS Text Record Evidence Data available in order to enable subpoenas or trace backs for a particular day.

The Contract is for one 12 Month Base Period, beginning 1/29/2025 - 1/28/2026 at a total contract value of $708,000.00