U.S. Department of Commerce/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/OFA/AGFS/AMD -- OFA51, 1305 East West Highway -- Station 7604, Silver Spring, Maryland 20910

D -- COMMUNICATION SERVICES SOL NMFSYINCS DUE 101598 POC LaMar Carlson 301/713-0839 E-MAIL: Lamar.Carlson@agf.noaa.gov, Sandra.Yin@noaa.gov. The Department of Commerce/NOAA/National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)/Office for Law Enforcement (OLE) request a response from Mobile Communications Service Providers (MCSP) companies that have the interest and capabilities for providing mobile and satellite communications services to fishing vessels participating in the NMFS OLE Vessel Management System (VMS). This is a request for information only. No solicitation is available. The OLE VMS has adopted an open architecture. Open architecture fosters consumer choice in a fast changing competitive industry, while keeping VMS less dependent on specific proprietary implementations. OLE will incrementally integrate combinations of mobile communications and transceiver technologies that can meet OLE standards for a targeted fishery. The intent of this Request for Information is to determine how NOAA Fisheries Office for Law Enforcement shall structure the US fishing vessel management program to allow for participation of multiple service providers. The objective is to approve one or more MCSP for VMS mobile communications conditional on meeting the OLE "Mobile Communications Service Provider Specification of Requirements." The objective is twofold. First, the government shall approve MCSP who can demonstrate reliable and quality communications services, while keeping the government role simple with minimum red tape. Second, the fishing industry does incur private costs; the government wants to allow an open system allowing the fishing industry to select vendors of their own choosing where applicable for a permit in a given fishery. Based on the responses from service providers, NMFS Enforcement might follow up in two ways. (1) Establish and implement a memo of understanding (MOU) between NMFS and the MCSP concerning customers in the NMFS VMS program including binding standards or terms for services, cost, reliability, mode of transmission, data format, billing, data stream handling and non-disclosure of proprietary fishing data. (2) Request a similar fact sheet from the service provider geared to the fishing industry so those in the trade can make purchase decisions that are compatible with the NMFS National VMS standards. This RFI is the vehicle to decide which MCSP shall be included in the VMS pilots over the immediate and near term. The VMS pilots targeted over the next year are primarily using Inmarsat-C: (1) Hawaiian Pelagic Longline (current operations 124 boats). (2) US ICCAT swordfish fleet (projected operations 10 boats over 24m Jan. 1, 1999). (3) Foreign Pacific fleet to be converted from Guam-based to Hawaii-based VMS (50 boats). (4) Swordfish fleet (projected operations 30 boats under 24m over 2 years). (5) Alaska Atka Mackerel fishery (projected 12 boats 1999). (6) Northeast Scallop or Multispecies (current Inmarsat-C operations 8 boats). After the pilots are fully tested and operational, it is desirable to allow for additional MCSP interfaces with VMS. OLE expects that pending successful VMS pilots, VMS will expand nationwide to add fisheries that are currently using VMS experimentally or have proposed regulations under discussion. Work, approval and MOU on interfacing with other MCSP is to be specified, scoped and priced once US vessels indicate they wish to use certain Mobile Transceiver Units (MTU) requiring a particular MCSP for VMS. (NOTE -- MTU used by fishing vessels registered in VMS shall also submit to a type approval process, reference OLE "Mobile Transceiver Unit Specification of Requirements." The MTU type approval shall be addressed by a separate RFI.) (NOTE -- OLE plans to purchase and implement a VMS surveillance control center that serves our expanding needs. Reference the request for procurement announced in CBD submission number 234277 August 7, 1998.) Offerors who believe they can satisfy the requirement must address their ability to satisfy Attachment 1 requirements in writing. All written responses must include a written narrative statement of capability, including detailed technical information and other technical literature demonstrating the ability to meet the above requirements. The response must be sufficient to permit agency analysis to establish a bonafide capability to meet the requirements. As needed, NMFS OLE will conduct visual inspection at MCSP field locations. Please provide a cost estimate for (1) establishing the service for the NMFS VMS (2) establishing the service for the private vessels participating in NMFS VMS (3) ongoing communications costs billed to government and private vessels with cost breakdowns for proposed options including position reports, optional data, polling and other optional messaging capabilities. Offerors may base account estimates for NMFS and fishing industry charges at levels of <500 boats, 500-1000 boats, and increments of 1000 additional boats transmitting hourly position reports for 300 days a year, stating length of time the offer is valid and suggesting how new terms are updated and renegotiated. Responses due NLT Oct 15. For requesting the document, "Mobile Communications Service Providers Specification of Requirements," and other technical inquiries contact: Dept of Commerce/NOAA, ATTN: Sandra Yen, 8484 Georgia Ave, Room 415. Silver Spring, Maryland 20910, phone 301-427-2300x124. E-mail Sandra.Yin@noaa.gov. Procurement POC LaMar Carlson 301-713-0839x196 E-mail Lamar.Carlson@agf.noaa.gov Posted 09/08/98 (W-SN246804). (0251)

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