RFI - Supply Chain Reimbursement Program Catalog of Expenses_rev090820.pdf

FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

Request for Information Supply Chain Reimbursement Program Catalog of Expenses

September 9, 2020

Request for Information – Supply Chain Reimbursement Program Catalog of Expenses Page 2 of 6

Introduction

This is a Request for Information (RFI) for Government planning purposes as described in FAR

15.201 (e). This RFI is to support the Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) in its market research for a contractor to produce a Report and Catalog of Eligible Expenses and

Estimated Costs (Catalog of Eligible Expenses) for the reasonable costs incurred in the removal, replacement, and disposal of equipment and services potentially posing a national security risk from the networks of advanced communications service providers. We invite interested vendors

(and any other firms or individuals with an interest in such a procurement) to respond to this RFI as set forth below.

Point of Contacts:

Sunny Diemert Contracting Officer Office of the Managing Director, Enterprise Acquisitions Center Email: Sunny.Diemert@fcc.gov

Nereyda Dunn Contracting Specialist Office of the Managing Director, Enterprise Acquisitions Center Email: Nereyda.Dunn@fcc.gov

How to respond:

Please submit any questions you may have related to the RFI and these matters no later than

September 14, 2020, 11:00 AM, ET via email to Sunny.Diemert@fcc.gov and

Nereyda.Dunn@fcc.gov.The email subject must state “RFI Questions – Supply Chain

Reimbursement Program – (Insert Company Name Here).”

Please submit responses to this RFI no later than September 21, 2020, 11:00 AM, ET via email to Sunny.Diemert@fcc.gov and Nereyda.Dunn@fcc.gov. The email subject must state “RFI

Response – Supply Chain Reimbursement Program – (Insert Company Name Here).” Preferred media for responses are electronic documents prepared in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, or

Excel. See the DISCLAIMER at the conclusion of this RFI for how the agency proposes to treat information submitted.

mailto:Sunny.Diemert@fcc.gov mailto:Nereyda.Dunn@fcc.gov mailto:Sunny.Diemert@fcc.gov mailto:Nereyda.Dunn@fcc.gov mailto:Sunny.Diemert@fcc.gov mailto:Nereyda.Dunn@fcc.gov

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Background

On March 12, 2020, the President signed into law the Secure and Trusted Communications

Networks Act of 2019 (Secure Networks Act), Pub. L. No. 116-124, 133 Stat. 158 (2020) (codified as amended at 47 U.S.C. §§ 1601–1609). The Secure Networks Act, among other measures, directs the Commission to establish a reimbursement program for the removal, replacement, and disposal of communications equipment or services posing national security risks, i.e., covered communications equipment or services. Congress has stated it expects the initial list of covered equipment and service providers, at a minimum, to include equipment and services provided by

Huawei Technologies Co. Limited and Zhongxing Telecommunications Equipment Corporation

(ZTE). House Report 116-352 at 13. The equipment and services provided by these suppliers relevant to the proposed reimbursement program are typically found, but not limited to, the networks of mobile wireless communications providers. The FCC is currently in the process of considering rules for creating the reimbursement program outlined in the Secure Networks Act, WC Docket No. 18-89.

Scope

To help identify reimbursable costs with as much specificity as possible, provide guidance to entities seeking reimbursement, streamline the reimbursement process, and increase accountability, the FCC seeks information on the availability of contractors with the requisite expertise to produce a Report and Catalog of Eligible Expenses and costs associated with producing such a Report. To produce the Report and Catalog of Eligible Expenses, the FCC expects a contractor would engage through confidential interviews and other means radiofrequency and structural engineers, suppliers, support companies, manufacturers, attorneys, and network engineers to identify the steps and timing for a transition away from covered equipment and services under various scenarios, especially involving a mobile wireless network.

The Catalog would be publicly available and need to account for the cost of available replacement equipment and services along with the additional costs associated with transitioning a network, e.g., drive-testing to determine baseline coverage, installing new network cores, modifying or constructing new cell sites, testing and optimizing network performance, migrating traffic, and decommissioning covered equipment and services. The catalog would need to include predetermined estimates or ranges for reimbursable cost for the most commonly incurred categories of expenses. The catalog would not be a definitive list of all reimbursable expenses but instead a means of facilitating the reimbursement process. For an example of the type of

Report and Catalog of Eligible Expenses the FCC expects, we refer respondents to the report and catalog previously produced for the FCC’s broadcast incentive auction reimbursement program.

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Public Notice, 29 FCC Rcd 2989 (MB 2014), https://www.fcc.gov/document/media-bureau-seeks-comment-widelity-report-and-catalog.

Information Requested:

The Government requests that respondents confine their responses to the information requested below. Elaborate bindings, illustrations, and company descriptions, except as specified below, are unnecessary and discouraged. All responses to this RFI shall instead be focused on the specific categories of information requested. Respondents are encouraged to include responses to all the items listed below. Please identify your responses by the alphanumeric item below to which it responds or, if that is not feasible, by lettered topic. Reponses to the RFI should NOT exceed 20 pages (excluding a cover page, table of contents, and any company portfolio).

In response to the RFI, please provide the following information:

A.) Company Information, including:

1. Company Name(s);

2. Company Address;

3. Company URL;

4. Point of Contact (name, title, telephone number, email address);

5. Principal places of business and office locations from which potential FCC services would be managed;

6. Primary North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code and business type for that NAICS code (Other than Small Business, Small Business, Small

Disadvantaged Business, 8(a), Service Disabled Veteran Owned (SDVOSB), Women-

Owned, HUBZone, etc.);

7. Business relationships that would potentially compromise or might appear to others to bias work performed for the FCC in this area.

B.) Potential Technical and Procurement Approaches:

1. Description of the vendor’s potential solution(s) for requirements.

2. Whether the capabilities are available today or whether the proposed solutions would have to be developed or modified to meet the tasks described;

https://www.fcc.gov/document/media-bureau-seeks-comment-widelity-report-and-catalog https://www.fcc.gov/document/media-bureau-seeks-comment-widelity-report-and-catalog

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3. Description of perceived technical, cost, and schedule risks in performing the combined requirements for any procurement pursued following the RFI;

4. Suggestions for optimal contract type, with explanation, for any procurement pursued following the RFI;

5. Suggestions for source selection factors or procedures designed to allow the

Government to meaningfully discriminate among competing vendors, with explanation, for any procurement pursued following the RFI;

6. Suggestions for streamlining techniques designed to accelerate award for any procurement pursued following the RFI;

7. Suggestions for acquisition vehicle(s) (and rationales) for any procurement pursued following the RFI (e.g., specific Government-wide Acquisition Contracts (GWAC), General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Supply Schedules (FSS), Multi-Agency

Contracts (MAC), contract with another agency with excess capacity, open market).

C.) Vendor Qualifications and Experience:

1. Describe past performance and staff experience for supporting contracts with a similar scope of work.

2. Describe experience working with the FCC or FAR-based contracts if any.

DISCLAIMER:

This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a solicitation. The Government does not intend to award a contract or place an order on the basis of responses to this document, and, in accordance with FAR 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. The

Government may, at its sole discretion and at no cost to the Government, copy all or parts of a respondent’s submission for the purpose of evaluating, summarizing, or compiling information for agency use. Agency stakeholders in the RFI process will share information among themselves.

Responses to the RFI will not be returned to their submitters. Responders are solely responsible for all expense associated with responding to this RFI.

The Government will consider claims that submitted information is trade secret or commercial or financial information that is privileged or confidential, but only when the submitter: (1) specifically identifies the information for which confidential treatment is sought and clearly marks such information as proprietary or confidential; (2) explains why the information identified is claimed to be commercial or financial that is privileged or contains a trade secret; (3) explains the degree to which the information concerns a service that is subject to competition; (4) explains

Request for Information – Supply Chain Reimbursement Program Catalog of Expenses Page 6 of 6 how disclosure of the information could result in substantial competitive harm; (5) identifies any measures taken by the submitting party to prevent unauthorized disclosure; (6) identifies whether the information is available to the public and the extent of any previous disclosure of the information to third parties; (7) justifies the period during which the submitting party asserts that material should not be available for public disclosure; and (8) identifies any other information that the party seeking confidential treatment believes may be useful in assessing whether its request for confidentiality should be respected. While the agency cannot guarantee that such information will not be disclosed upon proper request of a Federal Court or administrative tribunal of competent jurisdiction or pursuant to the FOIA, under no circumstance will the submission under such a claim be provided to a person seeking access to it under the

FOIA without the submitter being consulted, being afforded an opportunity to appeal in advance a decision to disclose, and being afforded notice in advance to seek injunctive relief before disclosure and after denied appeal.