Ceiling Increase, University of Maryland, NAAJ1520-17-00105

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Acquisition and Grants Office (AGO), Strategic Sourcing Acquisition Division (SSAD), intends to increase the maximum ceiling amount on the non-competitively awarded Indefinite-Delivery Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) Contract No. DG-1330-12-CQ-0038 with the University of Maryland - Office of Research Administration (MAX), 3112 Lee Building, 7809 Regents Dr., College Park, MD 20742. The statutory authority permitting Other than Full and Open Competition is 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(1), as implemented by FAR 6.302-1 - Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements. The North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code for this procurement is 517110, Wired Telecommunications Carriers. The purpose of this contract is to acquire access to MAX's networking infrastructure which provides the unique scientific, research, and education networking infrastructure of optical dark fiber, a customer managed spectrum, a wave division multiplexed transport at 1G, 10G, and 100G, Advanced Layer 2 Services (AL2S), colocation services at strategic points of presence, peering with the Research and Education (R&E) community, access to commodity Internet services, and the benefit of MAX commercial partnerships and services made available via the MAX network infrastructure to its participants. MAX supports a regional network footprint specifically for the advancement and proliferation of scientific, research, and education networking in the Washington DC metropolitan area. The NOAA Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) has engineered, configured, and implemented N-Wave for interconnection of the OCIO, NOAA high performance research resources, and the NOAA scientific community as a whole. The intent of N-Wave is to provide a national network backbone for the interconnection of all NOAA research facilities. This noncompetitive IDIQ contract was awarded on August 30th, 2013 for one base year of performance with four (4) one-year options. Due to emergent requirements surrounding compliance with the Trusted Internet Connection mandate, support for the NOAA Network Consolidation and Optimization Plan, as well as additional services required by DC Metro area programs within NOAA, including the National Weather Service (NWS), National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS), and Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-R), additional task orders have been required over the originally awarded IDIQ ceiling amount. This ceiling increase will allow for continued services within scope of the current contract thru August 31, 2017. THIS NOTICE IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL. NO SOLICITATION WILL BE ISSUED FOR THIS REQUIREMENT. It is the Government's belief that the University of Maryland (Mid Atlantic Crossroads [MAX]) is the only entity capable of meeting the subject requirement. Any interested parties that believe they have the expertise and capability to meet this requirement may submit a capabilities statement no later than 15 calendar days from the date of the posting of this announcement. Responses received must include sufficient information to allow the Government to evaluate the interested parties capability relative to the technical requirements stated herein. The Government is not obligated to reimburse any costs incurred towards responding to this notice. A determination by the Government not to open this requirement for competition is solely within the Government's discretion. Responses are to be submitted to the Contracting Officer, McKenzy Hunter, mckenzy.hunter@noaa.gov. THIS IS NOT A SOLICITATION.