….of the Custom Satellite Communications Solutions –Small Business (CS2-SB) contract to four small businesses. The federal government increasingly relies on commercial satellite services to provide essential, secure communications to disaster recovery teams, emergency responders, and the military. Agencies are also using these services to support distant learning and to provide remote access to global government networks. The GSA and DISA satellite communications partnership for FCSA was formed in August 2009 to help control the burgeoning costs associated with federal agency’s use of satellite services; and to provide the government with single point access for the purchase and delivery of mission-critical services with significant savings for taxpayers.
“The FCSA program is a great success story demonstrating how GSA’s focus on collaboration with our customers has led to a solution that makes it easier and more affordable for federal agencies to get secure satellite services on an as-needed basis. This phase of awards also gives small businesses increased access to the federal marketplace while reducing government costs,” said GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service Commissioner Steven J. Kempf. “We continue to see the great benefits of combining DISA and GSA acquisition expertise and experience to deliver a lower cost option to federal agencies that need to purchase mission-critical satellite services. “
“FCSA offers the U.S. Government, and particularly the Department of Defense, unparalleled access to the best technologies, the most capable staff, and the agility to economically solve our global communications issues,” said DISA Program Executive Officer for Communications Bruce T. Bennett.
CS2-SB is the first of two sets of Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contracts for customized end-to-end satellite services solutions. The CS2-SB contract holders can compete for task orders that consist solely of satellite professional support services such as analysis and testing. CS2-SB, along with the future award of CS2, provides access to customer defined end-to-end solutions that include satellite bandwidth, teleport access, network management, the equipment needed for satellite communications, and engineering support such as integration, operations, and maintenance. These awards expand the common marketplace for commercial satellite communications services under the FCSA program, adding end-to-end solutions to the currently available offerings in transponded capacity (bandwidth), and pre-defined subscription services. CS2-SB awardees are: AIS Engineering, Inc.; By Light, Professional IT Services, Inc.; Knight Sky Consulting and Associates, LLC; and UltiSat, Inc. The CS2-SB contracts have a five year contract period (three base years with two, one-year options) and a ceiling of $900 million. Awards for the companion CS2 full and open contracts for large scale end-to-end solutions are planned for later this quarter. More information, including links to the new CS2-SB contracts, is available at the GSA Satellite Services Web site: www.gsa.gov/satellite.
