JUSTIFICIATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION 1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Acquisition Operations Technology Acquisition Center 23 Christopher Way Eatontown, New Jersey 07724 2. Description of Action: The proposed action is for a firm-fixed-price contract, issued on a sole source basis for continued use of existing dark fiber optic connections between buildings located throughout the Pittsburgh Healthcare System. The existing dark fiber network supporting information technology system communications across the Pittsburgh Health Care System is owned, managed and maintained by DQE Communications located at 411 Seventh Ave 15th floor, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (PA) 15219. 3. Description of the Supplies or Services: VA, Office of Information and Technology, Service Delivery and Engineering, Field Operations Region 4, in support of the Pittsburgh Healthcare System has a requirement for the renewal of existing fiber optic network services between all locations of the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, the Veterans Integrated Service Network 4 Office, and VA Pittsburgh Human Engineering Research Laboratory. The period of performance shall be 12 months from February 1, 2016 through January 31, 2017 followed by three 12-month option periods. 4. Authority: The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(1) as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-1 entitled, "Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements." 5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: As detailed in section 8 below, DQE Communications owns the current dark fiber infrastructure installed and connected to VA locations throughout the Pittsburgh Healthcare System. This infrastructure is critical for connectivity to the current information technology systems supporting Pittsburgh Health Care System locations. All locations depend on extensive computing and Internet-based services and connectivity to systems and technologies to maintain current business operations as well as provide support of the medical treatment of Veterans served at VA facilities throughout the greater Pittsburgh metropolitan area. DQE Communications already owns the dark fiber that is in place for a private network that is more than 600 times faster than a typical T1 data connection. DQE Communications has previous designed, constructed and tested the dark fiber network between the Pittsburgh Health Care System locations to support at least 10 Gigabyte bandwidth and data throughput. DQE Communications has already obtained the necessary agreements to use poles. to maintain its current fiber cable infrastructure throughout the city of Pittsburgh. The VA does not own any of the existing fiber networks. Any other contractor that could supply the required fiber would be required to provide fiber optic connection from their distribution points to the main demarcation locations throughout the Pittsburgh Healthcare System. Market Research revealed that this will require significant effort which includes running miles of fiber cable overhead and underground. Based on potential construction requirements and market research, it is highly unlikely that any other source can provide the required dark fiber network services and connectivity by the required date of February 1, 2016 and would result in an interruption of current connectivity between locations throughout the Pittsburgh Health Care System. 6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in section 8 of this Justification. This effort did not yield any additional sources that can meet the Government's requirements. There is no competition anticipated for this acquisition. The proposed action described herein will be synopsized on the Federal Business Opportunities Page as a combined synopsis and solicitation in accordance with FAR 12.603 and FAR 5.203. 7. Actions to Increase Competition: In order to remove or overcome barriers to competition in future acquisitions for this requirement, VA will perform additional market research so that other sources and associated solutions can be considered. 8. Market Research: In October 2015, the Government's technical experts conducted market research. The market research included contacting the two primary General Services Administration (GSA) Networx vendors (AT&T and CentruryLink) to see if they provide these services under their current GSA Networx contracts. Both vendors said they are unable to provide the required fiber network services. Additionally, VA technical experts researched via an internet Google search to identify dark fiber providers in the Pittsburgh area. This search identified two other sources other than DQE Communications, the current provider. The first of the two providers is the Zayo Group, who was contacted via email to their sales group. Their response advised they did not own any dark fiber networks in the Pittsburgh area and would not be capable of meeting the requirements for this effort.. The second dark fiber provider contacted was Sunesys, who indicated they do have a dark fiber network in place but would need to install fiber cable to all of the Pittsburgh Health Care system locations identified to connect to their network. Sunesys has stated that they will need a minimum of 90 days from contract award to get the new network in place to initiate services. Accordingly, Sunesys cannot put the required dark fiber infrastructure in place by the required date of February 1, 2016 to preclude a break in service. DQE Communications' network covers thousands of miles in the 9-county region serving the greater Pittsburgh area. DQE Communications' existing self-healing, fiber optic, ring-based architecture offers superior redundancy in support of Pittsburgh Health Care System requirements. In the event of a failure, the network automatically detects and redirects the network to available fiber connections to ensure continuous service. Using the DQE Communications' dark fiber network enables users to transmit extraordinary amounts of critical data, video and telephony traffic between facilities, and provides cost-effective transport to the Internet. Based on this market research, it was determined that only DQE Communications can meet all of the Government's requirements because they are the only source in the Pittsburgh area having existing dark fiber infrastructure currently in place and would not require any additional installation or construction to provide service without the disruption of existing business and medical treatment operations across Pittsburgh Health Care System locations. 9. Other Facts: None.
