Network Line for Boyers, PA Facility

The United States Patent and Trademark Office, Facility Operations and Production Services Division (FOPSD), Production Services Branch (PSB), Remote Production Services Section (RPSS), leases 43,765 square feet of space for a secure, remote production, operation, and disaster recovery data center in a limestone mine facility in Boyers, Pennyslvania. The Lessor is Iron Mountain/National Underground Storage (IM/NUS), which operates the facility and maintains the security of the mine. Boyers, PA is a remote location and high speed telecommunications services into the site are limited. IM/NUS leased high speed SONET telecommunications services between Boyers, PA and Pittsburgh, PA to provide a highly redundant and cost effective solution for high speed telecommunications services to their site. In 2007, USPTO contracted with ATT (GSA FTS2001 contract) and IM/NUS (USPTO contract) to obtain an OC-12 (622 Mbps) telecommunications circuit from Alexandria, VA to Boyers, PA. The circuit supports the USPTO data bunkering project for data recovery in the event of a disaster. The telecommunications circuit was re-competed on the GSA Networx contract in 2009. The ATT Networx proposal of an ATT Networx OC-12 circuit from Alexandria, VA to Pittsburgh, PA and an IM/NUS OC-12 circuit from Pittsburgh, PA to Boyers, PA was the lowest cost proposal that meet the requirements. IM/NUS maintains the contract for the OC-12 line as the Lessor, and therefore USPTO must contract with IM/NUS for this requirement. Sole Source Authority: The Patent and Trademark Acquisition Guidelines (PTAG) specifically exempts USPTO from the Competition in Contracting Act (CICA - 41 USC 253). Reason for Sole Source: Only one responsible source: the supplies or services needed by the agency are available from only one responsible source and no other type of supplies or services will satisfy the agency requirements.