58 -- Deployable Cellular Network

Notice to award a sole source contract to Ericsson Corporation of Sweden under the Foreign Comparative Test (FCT) Program for approximately $1,700,000.00 for providing a state of the art tactical automated system and digital telecommunications network to support the Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (C4I) information flow under the authority of FAR 6.302-1 (10 U.S.C. 2304 (c)(1)) (Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services will Satisfy the Agency's Needs). A Sources Sought Notice was published on FEDBIZOPPS from Feb 25, 2003 thru Mar 26, 2003 and Ericsson Corporation was the only responder to the notice, further market research also confirmed no other sources. Under the FCT Program this project will test and evaluate a commercially available transportable cellular network capable of supporting 5000 users, that can be deployed worldwide (stand-alone) in support of mission requirements. This project will evaluate the capabilities of the Ericsson third generation (3G) Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) mobile cellular phone system for meeting two military user requirements: digital secure communications and war-fighter access to high speed data communications. Congress has approved this FCT. This notice is not a request for proposal and may constitute the only official notice of this action. See numbered note 22.