NAS Jacksonville Hospital Telcom

NCTAMS LANT presently has a contract with Bellsouth (AT&T) for the support and maintenance of the trunk line services for Naval Hospital Jacksonville and FRC Cecil Commerce Center.

The Contracting Officer exercised 52.217-8 on 1 October 2023 with a period of performance of 1 October to 31 March 2024. The purpose of this action is to issue a separate, sole source contracting solution, for six (6) months from 1 April to 30 September 2024, to allow for continue technical discussions prior to the issuance of the follow-on contract on 1 October 2024. If the continuity of service is not maintained by the award of this action, all military, civilian, and contractors would be negatively impacted, as cell phone services would be overwhelmed if attempting to support regular communications historically supported by the service.

It is expected that life safety issues would arise, as the RDC 911 Call Center has not been tested to handle overflow of that magnitude. Base Security would also be impacted as their communication plan incorporates use of the current services. The Jacksonville Hospital would lose all communication coming into the hospital, which could create a life safety issue. Emergency calls would not come through. The acquisition strategy is a sole source award to the incumbent AT&T.

Historical buys for this service have not resulted in competition; AT&T has been performing this service for as long as our records show. Therefore, the Government has no expectation of having received better terms or price had sufficient time been made available to compete this requirement.