5G RIC and Services for Stockbridge, NY and Table Mountain, CO

This is a Notice of Proposed Contract Action under the FAR Part 12 Acquisition of Commercial Items and FAR Part 13 Simplified Acquisition Procedures. This notice is for information only; a solicitation will not be issued. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR QUOTATION. No contract will be awarded on the basis of offers received in response to this notice. The associated North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code is 334220 with a small business size standard of 1,250 employees.

AFRL requires a 5G RIC and services. The Government intends to negotiate a sole source contract with:   

Nokia of America

            600 Mountain Ave, STE 700

            Murray Hill, NJ 07974

The Government has determined that no other source has commercial offerings that can meet this requirement. The Government requires a 5G RIC hardware and software package, accessories, and installation/configuration/technical support.  This effort is for the hardware, software, and services to implement Nokia's highly-specialized interface, called the “Xf” interface, into the existing Nokia equipment in the AFRL Stockbridge and NTIA/ITS Table Mountain 5G testbeds. Nokia is the only source that can meet the need as this is a follow-on contract from a previously awarded R&D effort.  This contract would tie the commercial 5G network deployed at Hill AFB, UT to locations in Stockbridge, NY and Table Mountain, CO.  Procuring hardware and software units from a different manufacturer would cause incompatibilities and render the previous Government investment obsolete. This acquisition is for the acquisition of highly specialized equipment, and the services to integrate, test, and provide engineering support for the highly specialized equipment at two Government test sites. The rationale for why the “Xf interface” supplies/services are “highly-specialized” is because the “Xf interface” is unique to Nokia's existing commercial Radio Access Network hardware design, which is already deployed at the Stockbridge and Table Mountain test sites.  No other vendor has access to the Nokia commercial 5G hardware product design upon which the Xf interface design is based. Substantial duplication of cost to the Government, which could not be recovered via open competition, would be necessary to essentially replace the existing multi-million-dollar network with a different design that would enable competition for an equivalent to the “Xf interface”.  Furthermore, such an approach would also be entirely time-prohibitive, because the delays incurred in re-designing and re-competing the entire 5G network infrastructure would impact the entire program (to maintain compatibility of designs), not just the stand-alone test sites. Under the contemplated contract, Nokia will provide the following supplies and services:

5G RIC system and incidental services:

SEP (RIC) HW, Airframe OE HW RIC Server

SEP (RIC) SW, SEP(RIC) SW Platform, Sep 22

NPO, Network Planning and Optimization: HLD, LLD, ATP Creation

Deploy, Network Deployment of RIC, installation, configuration, commissioning

TSS SWS, Technical Support Services - SW

TSS HWS, Technical Support Services - HW

This is a notice of proposed contract action and not a request for competitive proposals; however, all responsible sources may submit a capability statement or proposal, which shall be considered by the agency. All inquiries should be sent by email to larry.barto.1@us.af.mil. Responses must be submitted by the date/time listed on the notice. Any response to this notice must show clear and convincing evidence that competition would be advantageous to the Government in future procurements.

Responses received will be evaluated; however a determination by the Government not to compete the proposed procurement based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. The Government anticipates an award date on or before 30 September 2022.

A Sole Source Justification will be attached to the subsequent Notice of Award in accordance with applicable regulation.