US Department of Commerce/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 1325 East West Highway - Station 4301, Silver Spring, Maryland 20910-3283

R -- SOURCES SOUGHT FOR UPGRADE/ENHANCEMENT OR REPLACEMENT FOR THE NOAA WEATHER WIRE SERVICE (NWWS) DUE 122895 POC Marguerite G. Brown, Contract Specialist; 301/713-0829 58 - SOURCES SOUGHT FOR UPGRADE/ENHANCEMENT OR REPLACEMENT FOR THE NOAA WEATHER WIRE SERVICE (NWWS) POC Ms. Marguerite G. Brown, 301/713-0829. As a critical part of its defined mission, the National Weather Service (NWS) intends to continue and upgrade services that provide the direct dissemination of information to the public that is vital to the protection of life and property. The NWS currently operates the NOAA Weather Radio (NWR) and the NOAA Weather Wire Service (NWWS) for this purpose. The NWR is a local VHF/FM radio broadcast system that provides information directly to approximately 75% of the public. Currently it is being upgraded with the goal of bringing 95% of the U.S. population under its coverage. The NWWS is a contractor operated, satellite based dissemination system intended to provide critical information vital to the safety and welfare of the public to local emergency managers and mass news disseminators, and thus to the public, in the most timely manner possible. The NWWS currently utilizes C-band satellite technology that makes any of over 1000 NWS products (text, with graphics and satellite imagery currently being added) available to more than 1500 customers anywhere in the United States and its possessions within 3 seconds of transmission with a demonstrated operational availability in excess of 0.9998. It is the intent of the NWS to continue to operate these systems and, in partnership with the private sector, seek means to make the information delivered by them to an end user more useful, more widely available, and less costly without sacrificing the current levels of timeliness, reliability, and availability. Methods that utilize the existing and planned NWS infrastructure to deliver NWS information to the end user with little or no recurring cost are highly desirable. To this end the NWS is seeking information and expressions of interest from vendors who can (1) provide a primary telecommunications network for the direct delivery of NWS products from NWS offices and centers located in the continental U. S., Alaska, Hawaii, andPuerto Rico to customers in those areas with service equal to or better than the existing NWWS and NWR systems at a lesser cost, (2) provide secondary, multi-layered dissemination networks that provide additional, different levels of service at lower costs, (3) provide auxiliary delivery services beyond NWWS nodes via a variety of links (telephone, radio, cable TV, pagers, satellite TV, etc.), (4) provide hardware and software devices and services necessary to utilize the basic NWS datastream to create interactive displays and alarm mechanisms that directly meet the needs of individuals and groups especially at risk from reported hazardous events, and (5) make innovative, value-added and technical enhancements (hardware and software) available that will allow end users access to the products or additional services in a manner that best fits their individual needs. The Government is interested in directly disseminating that information that is currently being provided by the NWS through NWWS, NWR, and other systems as audio, text, graphics, and imagery products that are vital to public safety and welfare, utilizing the most cost effective analog and digital technologies available. The goal is to provide a non-proprietary, standard, open architecture source that can be easily received and processed with inexpensive technology. The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this notice, or to otherwise pay for the information being solicited. However, the Government will utilize the information provided in response to this notice to develop an RFP for release in January 1997 with award of a fixed price contract in January 1998. The Government does intend to invite all those respondents expressing an interest to a future open meeting on that subject. To preclude disclosure of restricted data furnished in response to this notice, responders are required to mark any or all data with the specified legend prescribed in FAR Clause 52.215.12. Written responses are required within sixty days after the CBD publishing date. All responsible sources may submit a capability statement which addresses the requirements numbered as (1), (2), (3), (4) and (5). An information package can be obtained by submitting a written request to the address above or via fax to (301)713-0806, referencing ''NWWS Sources Sought''. (0293)

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