Access Support Services for NRC-Owned Pagers

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) intends to negotiate a sole source contract with Skytel for paging services for NRC-owned paging devices in order to maintain an emergency response posture to incidents and conditions for the protection of public health and safety. The estimated period of performance for this requirement consists of a one year base and three one-year options. The NRC owns approximately 140 pagers which are distributed to NRC employees who perform services either directly related with emergency response functions supporting the NRC on a daily basis or provide additional support functions on an as-needed basis when an incident arises. The use of Skytel specific paging services will allow the NRC to maintain its emergency response posture and reduce the cost of providing this service to the Government. ICOD has determined that Skytel is the only service provider who can provide for continuous paging services, minimize cost, and maintain the NRC’s emergency response posture for the following reasons: the current paging services utilize Skytel owned toll free numbers which will not be transferrable to another vendor as they are the property of Skytel, the selection of another vendor would result in a wholesale change of the contact numbers for emergency responders, increased staff resource utilization to update and redistribute emergency call out lists, and modifications to automated notification systems with programmed Skytel numbers, and testing of the new numbers – thus inhibiting the agency’s ability to respond to emergencies should incidents of public health and safety arise, which is directly tied to NRCs mission; and the NRC would incur increased costs associated with the wholesale change of contract numbers including contractor staff time to update and redistribute emergency call out lists, modifications to automated notification systems with programmed Skytel numbers, testing of the new telephone numbers, and account set-up fees or service initiation associated with new number accounts. The authority for negotiating on a sole-source basis is made under the authority of 41 U.S.C. 253(c)(1) and Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1 which provides for limiting competition in those situations where the supplies or services are available from only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy the agency requirements. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code is 517210, Size Standard: 1,500 Employees. This notice of intent is neither a request for proposal nor a solicitation of offers. A determination not to compete this proposed procurement based on responses to the notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. Any response to this notice must show clear and convincing evidence that competition would be advantageous to the Government. In doing so, interested sources must submit technical capabilities and any other information that demonstrates their ability to meet the NRC’s needs. Detailed capabilities must be submitted to the above address not later than 10 calendar days from the date this announcement appears in the Federal Business Opportunities. Telephonic responses and responses providing insufficient information for evaluation by the NRC will not be considered.