SOLICITATION NOTICE
99 -- Federal Telecommunications Infrastructure (FTI), Notice of Intent to Contract
- Notice Date
- 5/4/2012
- Notice Type
- Presolicitation
- Contracting Office
- FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, AAQ-320 HQ - FAA Headquarters (Washington, DC)
- ZIP Code
- 00000
- Solicitation Number
- DTFA01-02-D-03006
- Response Due
- 5/31/2012
- Archive Date
- 6/15/2012
- Point of Contact
- Todd Pennington, 202-493-5960
- E-Mail Address
-
todd.pennington@faa.gov
(todd.pennington@faa.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- FTI Bridge Contract Announcement Reference: FAA Telecommunications Infrastructure (FTI) Market Survey/Request for Information - Solicitation Number 10916 issued 14 July 2011 1. IntroductionThis public announcement is being issued in accordance with the FAA Acquisition Management System (AMS) Section 3.2.1.3.11. Interested parties are advised that: This is not a Screening Information Request (SIR) or Request for Proposals; The FAA is not seeking or accepting unsolicited proposals; and The FAA will not pay for any information received or costs incurred in responding to this announcement. 2. Purpose of this AnnouncementThe purpose of this announcement is to advise interested parties that the FAA intends to issue a bridge contract to Harris Corporation for the continuation of services obtained under the FAA Telecommunications Infrastructure (FTI) contract. The bridge contract will have a five-year period of performance with an estimated value of $225 to $250 million per year. 3. BackgroundThe FTI contract has a period of performance from July 2002 to September 2017 and there is a Continuity of Services clause that could be invoked to extend the services to September 2018. In July 2011, the FAA issued a request for information (RFI) to obtain an industry forecast of telecommunications technologies and pricing between 2015 and 2025 and to assess the potential competitive landscape for the successor to the FTI contract. While the responses to the RFI indicated that there is sufficient interest in a re-competition of the FTI scope of services, it also showed that there are no marketplace or technology drivers at this point in time that would yield a positive business case or provide benefits beyond what can be obtained through the existing FTI contract.The lack of a favorable business case for award of a successor to the FTI contract in the near term and the FAA budget and NextGen-related constraints (described in Section 5 of this announcement) have led the FAA to conclude that it is in its best interests to issue a bridge contract to Harris Corporation on single source basis to continue the services obtained under the FTI contract for an additional five-years beyond 2017. 4. FTI Scope of ServicesThe FAA obtains approximately 25,000 telecommunications services under the FTI contract. Two physically separate networks are provided - one to support to National Airspace System (NAS) operations and one to support routine administrative and mission support functions. The FTI NAS operational network supports seven different availability levels with the highest being 0.9999971. FTI relies heavily upon commercial telecommunications infrastructure, but to meet the required availability levels, the FTI contractor provides dedicated nodal infrastructure at 4,000+ service delivery locations. The FTI contractor also provides security gateways that enable FAA stakeholders (internal and external) to obtain NAS operational data without jeopardizing the security of NAS operational systems. The FTI Mission Support network is a private Internet Protocol (IP) network that provides connectivity to approximately 1000 locations. The FTI Mission Support network has two levels of service - a premium level with 3-hour restoration and a standard level with next business day restoration. Large core sites are implemented with premium level service and the majority of the sites (> 90%) are implemented with the standard level of service. The FTI contractor also provides security tokens for virtual private network (VPN) access to the Mission Support network to more than 15,000 FAA employees and support contractors.In addition to traditional telecommunications services, the FTI contractor also provides enterprise messaging services based upon Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) technologies. The FTI enterprise messaging services provide a standardized and secure implementation of a publisher/subscriber model for efficient distribution of information.The nodal infrastructure comprising both the NAS operational network and the Mission Support network is the property of the FTI prime contractor and its service provider teammates. They are responsible for performing technology refreshes as required to ensure the continued supportability of the network. The FTI contractor is also the Customer of Record for all the access and transport circuits comprising the FTI network.The majority of FTI telecommunications services originate or terminate in the continental United States (CONUS), but the FTI contractor also provides services to FAA and stakeholder locations outside the CONUS (e.g., Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, Guam, and international locations). FAA stakeholders include the Department of Defense (DoD), the National Weather Service (NWS), and foreign air traffic control entities such as NAVCANADA. Within the CONUS, FTI relies heavily upon an optical backbone that consists of 2.5 Gbps and 10 Gbps optical waves that connect major FTI network points of presence (POPs). FAA high-traffic volume facilities connect to the optical backbone via dual SONET rings (also referred to as "metro rings") or direct OC-level fiber connections. In addition to traditional landline services, the FTI contractor provides satellite and microwave-based services as follows: 42 remote earth station sites in the CONUS providing 132 DS-0 services; 8 remote earth station sites in the Caribbean providing14 DS-0 services; 120 microwave radio sites in the CONUS supporting 164 DS-1 services; and 39 microwave radio sites in OCONUS locations (Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Guam) supporting 77 DS-1 services. Since award of the FTI contract in 2002, the FAA's service requirements have evolved from a mix of voice grade (VG) and low data rate digital circuits to much higher bandwidth trunks and services that utilize Internet Protocol (IP) interfaces. The FAA expects demand for bandwidth to continue to grow as it transitions to the Next Generation (NextGen) air traffic control system.The FTI contractor also provides an extensive set of "support services" that are integral to the operation of the FTI networks. The support services include, but are not limited to program management, network engineering, configuration management, service verification, service ordering and provisioning, network management and operations, and security management. 5. ConstraintsThe FAA is facing a tightly constrained funding environment due to the Government-wide budget climate. Over the next five fiscal years, the FAA has prioritized available funding to the ongoing implementation of the NextGen air traffic control system. As a result, capital investment funding will not be available to support the replacement of the FTI network until 2018 at the earliest. In addition, Operations funding will not be available to support the parallel operation of the existing FTI network and a replacement network during that same timeframe. The transition to a replacement network also would have to be achieved without disruption to ongoing NAS operations and without impacting the NextGen implementation.The FTI contractor and its service provider teammates own all of the network infrastructure supporting the delivery and operation of FTI telecommunications services. There is a clause within the FTI contract that allows for the transfer of infrastructure (referred to as "Customer Premise Equipment") located at FTI service delivery points with the terms and conditions subject to negotiation. In addition, the FTI contractor is the Customer of Record for all access and transport circuits, optical waves, and metro rings supporting the delivery of FTI services, but there is no contract clause requiring the transfer of those resources to the Government or a third party at the conclusion of the FTI contract.As part of managing its telecommunications enterprise, the FAA must ensure that contract end dates do not result in an interruption of services. Through the FTI program, the FAA has established an integrated infrastructure that supports the full range of the agency's telecommunications requirements. This approach has enabled the FAA to reduce the unit cost of telecommunications services through economies of scale and efficiency gains achieved through consolidating its management and acquisition of telecommunications services under the FTI contract. Moving forward, the FAA's intent is to preserve these efficiency gains and cost reductions. As such, the successor to the FTI contract must provide the full scope of services. 6. FTI Bridge Contract Details and Planned ActionsBased upon the constraints noted above and the outcome of the 2011 Market Survey, the FAA plans to issue a single source bridge contract to the Harris Corporation to extend the services provided under the FTI contract. The period of performance will be five years (one base year and four one-year options) with an additional one-year continuity of operations period. The FAA intends to extend existing FTI contract clauses that place a cap on telecommunications service prices and incentivize continual optimization to maximize network efficiency. In addition to the single source bridge contract, the FAA's Communications, Information, and Network Programs organization that manages the FTI contract will seek to establish a capital investment funding line for a successor contract to FTI that will be awarded on full and open competitive basis prior to the end of the FTI Bridge contract period of performance. The expectation is that the continued evolution of telecommunications technologies and the FAA's migration to standard commercial interfaces through NextGen modernization programs will create a more favorable business case for the FTI network replacement. 7. Industry FeedbackInterested parties are invited to provide feedback on this announcement and the FAA's planned course of action. The FAA is interested in whether there are any parties who feel they could provide a replacement to the FTI network within the constraints identified in Section 5 of this announcement. Responses to this announcement must be submitted via electronic mail (e-mail) to the following FAA Email address: 9-AJW-FTI2Info@faa.gov by the date below. Files must be compatible with MS Office 2010 or be in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. No other form of submission will be accepted.Submissions are due by 4:00 pm EDT on May 31, 2012. The FAA will provide acknowledgment of receipt to each respondent via e-mail. If there are any objections to the planned course of action, the FAA may elect to follow-up with individual respondents to assess the viability of any recommended alternative courses of action.(End of Announcement)
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