MODIFICATION
D -- Land Mobile Radio Handheld and Infrastructure Project - RFI Revision 1
- Notice Date
- 10/1/2018
- Notice Type
- Modification/Amendment
- NAICS
- 334220
— Radio and Television Broadcasting and Wireless Communications Equipment Manufacturing
- Contracting Office
- Department of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration, Headquarters TSA, 601 S. 12th Street, TSA-25, 10th Floor, Arlington, Virginia, 20598, United States
- ZIP Code
- 20598
- Solicitation Number
- TSA-LMR-RFI
- Archive Date
- 11/14/2018
- Point of Contact
- Tiffany Harvey,
- E-Mail Address
-
tiffany.harvey@tsa.dhs.gov
(tiffany.harvey@tsa.dhs.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- Revision 1: Question 5 was updated and response date was updated. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Request for Information (RFI) Land Mobile Radio Handheld and Infrastructure Replacement Project ** TSA updated question 5 to remove "Vendor Questions Template" and corrected the date to reflect, Tuesday, October 30,2018** I. Disclaimer: This announcement constitutes a Request for Information (RFI) for the purposes of determining market capability of sources and obtaining additional information. It does not constitute a Request for Proposals (RFP), a Request for Quote (RFQ) or an indication that the Government will contract for any of the items and/or services discussed in this notice. Any formal solicitation that may subsequently be issued will be announced separately. Information on the specific topics of interest is provided in the following sections of this announcement. Neither TSA nor any other part of the Federal Government will be responsible for any cost incurred by responders in furnishing this information. II. Background: This RFI pertains to the TSA requirements within the United States of America and it territories for transitioning the TSA Land Mobile Radio System from the VHF (Very High Frequency) to UHF (Ultra High Frequency) frequency range. TSA will be responsible for obtaining all frequencies and coordinating with the FAA for permits for the new UHF frequencies. At the present time, TSA operates approximately 155 repeaters at approximately 150 airports, approximately 120 base stations at approximately at 120 airports, and over 21,000 handheld radios at approximately 415 airports located in the United States of America and its territories. TSA also has Bi-directional amplifier (BDA) and Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) systems installed at approximately 10 airports. Currently TSA manually encrypts its handheld radios and base stations monthly. III. Handheld Radios: TSA radio users are located in all 50 States, and US Territories (Guam, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands). TSA voice and data service requirements routinely change as airports are federalized or de-federalized increasing and decreasing the number of locations supported. TSA intends to replace the VHF handhelds with UHF handhelds. TSA seeks handhelds that are rugged and fit for purpose. Specific questions concerning the handheld radios and handheld maintenance are included in Attachment 3-A. IV. Infrastructure: The TSA infrastructure is not on a shared networked; each airport has it's only stand-alone system. All repeater and a majority of the base stations have antennas mounted on the roof of an airport terminal. TSA is intending to replace existing infrastructure with equipment that can both perform as currently functioning and potentially be used to improve TSA radio capability going forward. - A repeater is defined as the transmitter, receiver, duplexer, transmission line, antenna, and associated grounding equipment. - A base station is defined as the base station, paddle mic, transmission line, and antenna. Specific questions concerning Infrastructure are included in Attachment 3 -B. V. Encryption: TSA presently manually encrypts all handhelds and base stations on monthly basis utilizing Motorola KVL4000s. The new keys are generated locally and TSA has no requirement for a single nationwide key. TSA is interested in proposals for less labor intensive, but still cost effective way of changing keys monthly. Specific questions concerning Encryption are included in Attachment 3- C. VI. Purpose: The purpose of this RFI is to solicit statements of interest, conduct market research, as well as obtain industry recommendations to further inform TSA of industry best practices and vendor capabilities as it relates to UHF radios and UHF infrastructure equipment and services. TSA is currently planning to transition from the current VHF Land Mobile Radio (LMR) equipment to UHF LMR equipment using a 5-year phased approach. The intent of this RFI is to conduct market research for TSA's transition to UHF LMR System or future LMR contract(s) specifically to: a. Procurement: i. TSA presently has over 21,000 LMR that requires lifecycle refresh. How much of the existing inventory could be reused by others? What determination would industry use to determine what existing LMR assets will be bought back? How would you recommend that be accomplished? b. Operations/Performance: i. How would you propose to provide failure rate guarantees? ii. How would industry propose to provide service level guarantees with maintenance? iii. How often should the radios be life cycled? iv. Please provide industry insight and recommendations to ensure a smooth and successful transition of radio services; i.e. maintaining current service levels with minimal disruption during the transition; v. Please provide industry input as to the most cost-effective procedures for break-fix and preventive maintenance of the UHF infrastructure vi. Please provide recommendations on the most cost-effective method to utilize equipment removed from service as spare parts for similar equipment remaining in service. vii. Please identify options from industry as to disposition of equipment removed from service. (Trade-in, reserve for spares, reserve for spares and then trade-in, etc.) viii. TSA will welcome recommended solutions for less labor intensive methods to re-key 21,000+ handheld radios and 117 base stations on a monthly basis. ix. The change out of infrastructure is a major project. How would you oversee/manage a project of this size? x. How would you handle the ongoing support of codeplugs (new, existing) throughout the duration of the contract? xi. How would you perform site-surveys for base stations, repeaters, and BDA/DAS systems? xii. How would you dispatch personnel to address issues on-site? Where would these personnel be dispatched from? xiii. Do you support the use of aftermarket non-OEM accessories with your radios? Provide the manufactures name and the type of accessories that has been deem compatible for usage with your brand of radios? xiv. TSA is requesting information concerning the advantage of purchasing the extended warranty on repeaters, base stations, and handhelds. TSA is considering requesting successful Contractor furnish a Help Desk that receives trouble calls, triages the problem, and takes action to resolve the problem. If it is a handheld failure, the Help Desk will arrange shipping the defective unit to the Help Desk where it would be repaired or replaced and shipped back to the airport. What would be the advantage/disadvantage to the government if the handheld is under warranty or not. Should there be a CLIN for repairing radios under warranty and a separate CLIN for repairing radios not under warranty? The planned SOW will require the successful Contractor to travel to the airports to repair a defective base station or repeater. What would be the advantage/disadvantage to the government if the repeater or base station is under warranty or not? c. General: What information is required from TSA in order to submit a comprehensive proposal should TSA proceed with the RFP stage? VII. Intent: TSA intends to use the information obtained from your responses to assess viable and innovative technical approaches to maintain continuity of service and minimize costs while transitioning from a VHF to UHF LMR infrastructure. A favorable market survey will be followed by the development and execution of a supporting acquisition strategy. The specific timeframe for execution will be determined once quality responses to this RFI and viability of market offerings in this area are confirmed. This Request for Information (RFI) is issued solely for informational and planning purposes; it does not constitute an invitation for bids, request for proposals, or request for quotations. In accordance with FAR 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract, nor do they affect a potential offer's ability to respond to any future synopsis/solicitation which may or may not follow or restrict the U.S. Government's eventual acquisition approach. Additionally, the U.S. Government will not provide reimbursement for any information that may be submitted in response to this RFI. Respondents are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this RFI. Interested vendors responding to this RFI may provide capability information for individual aspects of this requirement or for an entire solution. Respondents will not be notified of any results derived from a review of the information provided, however information gathered may be utilized for technical and acquisition purposes. Time permitting and depending upon the information received, individual vendors may request one-on-one conferences for more detailed discussions or product demonstrations. The U.S. Government will not pay for any costs associated with such discussions or demonstration(s) of any products. VIII. Submission Instructions and Formatting Requirements: 1. TSA is interested in responses from vendors having knowledge, expertise and capabilities of UHF handheld radios and infrastructure equipment and services. Responses are requested by Tuseday, October 30, 2018, 5:00PM Eastern Standard Time (EST). Any response received after this date may also be considered but may not be included in initial reporting or assessments. 2. TSA seeks information for the equipment identified in Attachments A,B, and C and the associated services. 3. Respondents are asked to provide the following information in response to this RFI: a. Cost b. Technical information (End of Service Dates) c. Maintenance procedure information d. Encryption recommendations e. Provide additional information TSA that would be useful in regards to this RFI 4. All responses should be submitted in MS Word or searchable PDF format and submitted via email to the following email address: LMRRFI@tsa.dhs.gov ALL SUBMIISIONS, QUESTIONS AND RESPONSES SHOULD BE SUBMITTED IN MS WORD OR SEARCHABLE PDF FORMAT AND SUBMITTED VIA EMAIL TO THE POINTS OF CONTACT IDENTIFIED IN THE TABLE BELOW: Points of Contact Contracting Officer Name: Tiffany Harvey Telephone: 571-227-5948 Email: Tiffany.Harvey@tsa.dhs.gov Branch Chief Name: Grace Kelly Telephone: 609-813-3362 Email: Grace.P.Kelly@tsa.dhs.gov Contracting Officer Representative/Program Manager Name: Carl Bailey Telephone: 571-227-4255 Email: carl.bailey@tsa.dhs.gov Responses should not exceed 100 pages; all pages should be numbered consecutively throughout the document. Contents of the files must print on Letter 8½" by 11". MS Excel files must print on either Letter 8½" by 11" or Legal size 8½" by 14". Use ‘Times New Roman' 12-point font or larger for text, 10-point font or larger for tables, and 8-point font or larger for graphics. 5. Questions from interested vendors must be in writing, and shall be sent in electronic format to the following email address: LMRRFI@tsa.dhs.gov. Note: The Government may not be able to provide a response to all questions received. 6. Proprietary information, if any should be minimized and MUST BE CLEARLY MARKED. To aid TSA, please segregate proprietary information wherever possible. All information received in response to this RFI that is marked proprietary will be handled accordingly. Please be advised that all submissions become the property of the Federal Government, and will not be returned. Responses to this RFI may be evaluated by government technical experts drawn from staff within TSA. 7. A cover page labeled with the heading "Land Mobile Radio Handheld and Infrastructure Replacement Project" including the company name, company's address, technical point of contact, telephone number, email address and one alternate point of contact. 8. Your business size and status information, such as Small Business, HUB Zone Small Business, Veteran-Owned Small Business, Service-Disabled, Veteran-Owned Small Business, Woman-Owned Small Business, Small Disadvantaged Business, and 8(a) Small Business. 9. The North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) codes under which you typically provide services. 10. Background/Corporate Experience: A brief description of your corporate experience in service to both commercial and government organizations. TSA does not wish to receive calls or have meetings to discuss this RFI. Please do not attempt to set up phone calls and/or meetings with OIT or the Contracting Office at this time. After reviewing RFI responses, TSA is tentatively planning to host an Industry Day that will give all interested vendors the opportunity to ask questions and discuss TSA's Land Mobile Radio requirements. IX. Additional Information: The information provided by respondents to this RFI will be reviewed by the TSA in order to assist in determining any potential procurement strategies for obtaining the services described in the RFI. The information will not receive a formal evaluation. The TSA reserves the right to contact respondents in order to ask additional questions if the TSA determines this may be helpful in developing or refining any potential procurement strategy. Respondents are requested, however, to be as thorough as possible in their written submissions, and are cautioned that not all respondents will be contacted with follow-up questions.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/DHS/TSA/HQTSA/TSA-LMR-RFI/listing.html)
- Record
- SN05111913-W 20181003/181001230728-25449a5f51bc288d1209e4bdb8be0281 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
| FSG Index | This Issue's Index | Today's FBO Daily Index Page |