Bridge Contract with CenturyLink for the Arizona / Nevada Local Services Agreement (LSA I)

I. The GSA, Acquisition Operations Division (hereinafter referred to as "AOD") intends to award a bridge contract with a 6-month base period and one 3-month option period to Central Telephone Company, dba CenturyLink, Inc (hereinafter referred to as CenturyLink) to provide essential continuity of services during transition for Network Services Division's (NSD) Region 9 FAS telecommunications operations. This bridge contract is for CenturyLink's Arizona / Nevada (AZ / NV) Local Services Agreement (LSA) I contract and it will provide local telephone service in Arizona and Nevada. Region 9 AOD is doing this contract action to transition CenturyLink's current telephone inventory to a new contract vehicle. CenturyLink's AZ / NV LSA I contract expires on September 30, 2013, and there is no way to extend the contract. A bridge contract is needed in order to provide continuity of service while NSD transitions the telephone services from the AZ / NV LSA I to the AZ / NV LSA II contracts, which were awarded on September 30, 2013. Approval is sought to award this bridge contract on a sole source basis because CenturyLink is the current service provider for these telephone services and in accordance with 41 U.S.C 253 (c) 1, no other services will satisfy the agency's requirements during the transition period at the negotiated rate. (See section VI below.) The transition process of this requirement is imperative to ensure that GSA's client agencies that use CenturyLink's 1,031 telephone lines, do not lose the negotiated rates of service and incur additional costs with the expiration of the current contract, while GSA is in the process of moving these lines to the AZ / NV LSA II contract. Additionally, AT&T, Qwest, Cox, and tw telecom are the four other companies on the AZ / NV LSA I contract. Along with the bridge contract for CenturyLink's AZ / NV LSA I contract, GSA is also seeking approval to award sole source bridge contracts to these AT&T, Qwest, Cox, and tw telecom, in accordance with 41 U.S.C. 253 (c) 1. II. The period of performance for this proposed contract is a six month base period and one three month option period. Base period: October 1, 2013 to March 31, 2013. Option period: April 1, 2013 to June 30, 2013. III. The resultant contract will include all applicable provisions and clauses in effect through the Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2005-69 (effective September 3, 2013). This notice of intent to award a sole source bridge contract is not a request for competitive proposals. However, in accordance with FAR 5.207(c)(15)(ii), all responsible sources that feel they can meet the Government's requirements may submit a capability statement which shall be considered by the agency. Responses to this notice shall contain sufficient information to establish the interested parties' bona-fide capabilities for fulfilling the requirements within the statement of objectives (SOO), and include: the Dun & Bradstreet Number (DUNS), and the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN). All offerors must have an active registration in the System for Award management (SAM) www.sam.gov. A determination by the Government not compete this proposed contract based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. The information received will be retained as market research.