Lease Renewal and Maintenance of Fiber Optic Connectivity

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Program Support Center, Strategic Acquisition Service, Division of Acquisition Management, on behalf of the Indian Health Service (IHS), intends to negotiate and award a purchase order on a sole-source basis to Fibergate, Inc., 6076 Franconia Road, Suite C, Alexandria, VA, 22310-1719. The award will be for one year with two option years at a price not to exceed $100,000 inclusive of options. The services being acquired are lease renewal and maintenance of two pairs of dark fiber between 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD and 12300 Twinbrook Parkway, Rockville, MD, one pair is a diverse path for redundancy. These fiber pairs, which run over diverse paths for the purpose of continuity of operations, support all business systems throughout IHS. They provide all connectivity to the Internet, the IHS Wide Area Network, and the HHS Network. These connections are critical as they provide access to all IHS business systems outside of the headquarters location and HHS Enterprise applications such as HHS Enterprise Email, the Unified Financial Management System, and other E-Gov applications and future initiatives. This acquisition is being conducted on a sole-source basis because Fibergate, Inc., is the only company that has the fiber infrastructure to provide local area network speed connectivity to IHS. Fibergate, Inc., is a licensed utility company in Maryland and it owns the fiber optic cable connection between 5600 Fishers Lane and 12300 Twinbrook Parkway. This simplified acquisition is for services for which the Government intends to negotiate with only one source. Interested concerns may identify their interest in and capability to satisfy the requirement within 7 days after the date of publication of this notice. Capability statements may be submitted to Anthony Webb, Room 5-101, Parklawn Building, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20857, or vial email at awebb@psc.gov. Information received will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive acquisition. A determination by the Government not to open the requirement to competition based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government.