Notice of Intent to Sole Source to ETL Company Limited

THIS IS A NOTICE OF INTENT TO AWARD A SOLE SOURCE CONTRACT AND IS NOT A REQUEST FOR COMPETITIVE PROPOSALS/QUOTATIONS. The U.S. Embassy in Vientiane intends to award a firm-fixed-price contract to ETL Company Limited in Vientiane, Laos for the supplies and/or services. ETL Company Limited will provide High Speed Internet Lead line (HIL) services and technical support at U.S. Embassy Vientiane. These services require that 12 months of continued internet services at the rate of 60 Mbps are provided.

This will allow the Office of Diplomatic Technology to accomplish the mission objective of the U.S. Embassy to advance the interests of the United States, and to serve and protect U.S. citizens in Laos. The requirement was not publicized due to ETL is the only service provider in Vientiane, Laos that has the infrastructure in place to provide the services that meet the technical requirements.

ETL Company Limited is in a unique position to be the only provider that will be able to continue the existing service, which is also provided by ETL Company Limited, with no expected downtime for the internet circuit. Extensive monitoring has been taking place over the past year of service delivery, and our existing infrastructure is currently configured to optimally use the existing service that is being provided.

Attempting to replace this internet service provider would require a considerable amount of effort on behalf of the Washington DC based network engineers who currently have this circuit provisioned with an atypical configuration requisite for the internet demands of OpenNet in current internet environment of Laos where it can be quite difficult to internet service. ETL Company Limited is uniquely qualified to provide these services to American Embassy in Vientiane, Laos based upon the following:

They are the existing service provider for this line of HIL internet service. They have already provided and delivered the existing line of internet service to the service levels previously agreed to at acceptable levels. They are the only service provider providing internet service in Vientiane with redundant links for this connection being used to provide internet service to the OpenNet network. The Contracting Officer believes the cost to the USG is fair and reasonable.

Market survey is not possible to conduct due to use of one proprietary source and system. This acquisition is being conducted under Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 13 – Simplified Acquisition Procedures, Subpart 13.106-1(b)(1), For purchases not exceeding the simplified acquisition threshold (SAT), contracting officers may solicit from one source if the contracting officer determines that the circumstance of the contract action deem only one source reasonably available.

Interested parties may identify their capability to respond to this requirement to vientianeprocurement@state.gov This notice of intent to sole source is not a request for competitive proposals/quotations. The government will consider responses by 12:00 ET June 14, 2026. A determination by the Government not to complete this proposed action based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Primary point of contact is Vientiane Procurement at Email: vientianeprocurement@state.gov