Inactive 8(a) Sole Source (FAR 19.8)

PRE-SOLICITATION NOTICE NOI-NIAID-2005684 NAICS – 517311 This is a Notice of Intent, not a request for proposal. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Insti... PRE-SOLICITATION NOTICE NOI-NIAID-2005684 NAICS – 517311 This is a Notice of Intent, not a request for proposal. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) intends to negotiate on an other than full and open competition basis with Qwest Government Services, Inc DBA Century Link to procure dedicated circuit lines to provide connectivity to Poolesville location of NIAID. NIAID currently relies on CIT to provide connectivity to Poolesville over a circuit shared by all of NIH. This circuit is known to be over-utilized, which sometimes leads to slow and unreliable connectivity. Furthermore, Poolesville is outside of the NIAID firewall on the CIT network, making it very difficult or impossible for us to provide the same services and utilize the same security mechanisms, such as Network Access Control (NAC), that we do inside the NIAID firewall. The purpose of this requirement is for dedicated circuits to be used only by NIAID. It will provide faster and more reliable connectivity to Poolesville. It will also allow us to place it inside the NIAID firewall to provide the same services and security as we do at all other NIAID locations. The statutory authority for this sole source requirement is 41 U.S.C. 253 (c) (1) as implemented by FAR 13.106-1 only one responsible source and no other supply of service will satisfy agency requirements. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL. All responsible sources that could provide comparable services may submit a capability statement that will be considered by email (subject line to reference NOI-NAIDI-2005684) to Dana Monroe at dana.monroe@nih.gov by 5:00pm eastern standard time Monday, March 4, 2020. All responses received by the closing date of this synopsis will be considered by the Government. A determination not to compete this requirement, based upon responses to this notice, is solely within the discretion of the Government.