Department of the Treasury (DY), Financial Management Service, 401 14th Street, SW, Washington, DC 20227

D -- CELLULAR PHONES AND MAINTENANCE SOL FHQ99R01238 DUE 020299 POC Betty Wallace (202) 874-7126 E-MAIL: Cathy.Riddick@fms.sprint.com, Betty.Wallace@fms.sprint.com. This requirement was previously announced under Submission No. 286722 on January 11, 1999. Amendment No. A01 is issued to extend the due date for receipt of proposals, respond to questions, and to delete the pager requirement from the RFP. The pager requirement has been submitted to Commerce Business Daily under RFP-FHQ99R01245. The closing date for submission of offers has been extended to 2:00 P. M., February 2, 1999. Questions and answers are as follows: Question: 1. By mandating that the exchanges for the pagers and cellular phones remain 973-XXXX and 494-XXXX, respectively, your agency is fundamentally eliminating a competitve bid opportunity for other companies. Exchanges are bought and sold for the telephone companies and specific exchanges cannot always be procured at will. In light of the Government's overall desire to create a fair and level playing field, would DOT/FMS consider dropping this mandatory requirement from this bid to allow a fairer bid opportunity? Answer: Cellular phone numberscan be changed to a different exchange without effecting operations, so the requirement for cellular phones will be deleted. Unfortunately, FMS will face serious operational issues if pagers are changed to a different exchange. Numerous end-users have been working with the existing numbers for as long as seven years and if FMS changed, our users would have no assurance that their call for emergency service went through and would just have to keep trying -- perhaps to inactive numbers. FMS would not know and the result is that operations would easily be comprised, i.e. FMS could be stopped in producing paychecks and on emergencies being remedied promptly. FMS can not change pagers to a different exchange because of this requirement of other government agencies we serve. Question: 2. Is the Government requiring that the bidding vendors submit pricing based on new, state of the art equipment or used equipment? Response: FMS is requiring new equipment. Question: 3. What are the "transitional costs", that FMS is seeking to avoid? (By revealing this information, PageNet and other wireless companies may be able to submit alternate cost effective solutions). Response: FMS is seeking to avoid traditional investment costs for pager changes. They include such items as: redoing all pertinent procedures, insuring coordinated notification of all users and phasing in or different equipment and procedures without failure and, phasing out of all obsolete procedures and equipment. These costs are not trivial since a large number of people are involved at different locations and operating shifts. FMS has to provide a premium level of service without any interruptions. Question: 4. Would FMS consider receiving the pagers and cellular phones prior to 2/15/99 to build in a transition timeframe into the bid process? (This timeframe would be at no cost to the Government and eliminate having to pay an incumbent and new vendor if awarded). Response: The period of performance starts on March 1, 1999.Question 5. Who are the incumbent vendors? Response: Bell Atlantic-Nynex Mobile (cellular phones) and MobileComm (pagers). This announcement constitutes the only solicitation. Proposals are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. This request for proposal is for cellular telephones and maintenance service for the Department of the Treasury, Financial Management Service (FMS). All cellular phones will be delivered to 3700, East West Highway, Hyattsville, MD 20782. Proposals are due by 2:00 P. M. February 2, at the following location: Department of the Treasury, FMS, Liberty Center Building, 401-14th Street, S. W., Washington, DC 20227 Attn: Betty Wallace. I. DESCRIPTION -- FMS has a requirement to provide authorized personnel with cellular telephones and maintenance in order to maintain its' continuous operations. The minimum number of Government owned cellular telephones to be maintained will be twenty-seven (27) Portable Cellular phones and seven (7) Installed Mobile Cellular phones. FMS may require (20) additional cellular telephones and (1) mobile cellular phone each year during the contract life. The Government also reserves the right to trade in cellular phones. II. CELLULAR TELEPHONE TECHNOLOGY REQUIREMENTS -- The Contractor shall provide cellular phones that support both Analog and digital service using Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology. III. CELLULAR TELEPHONE REQUIREMENTS -- All cellular phones acquired under this contract shall have the same exchange. Cellular telephones shall have the following features: Signal strength indicator, Battery strength indicator, Security lockout, Volume and Ringer Volume Control, Power adapters for a car,Carrying case and additional and/or replacement batteries IV. COVERAGE- The Contractor shall provide local coverage to include but not limited to -- Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, MD. The Contractor shall provide roaming capability within the Continental of the United States (CONUS). Coverage of service under this contract shall be for 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 365 days per year. V. CONTRACTOR FURNISHED ITEMS -The Contractor shall provide user guides and any associated documentation provided by the equipment manufacturer. VI. GOVERNMENT STANDARDS -- All cellular telephones, cellular telephone accessories, and support maintenance shall be Year 2000 Compliant. VII. MEETINGS -- At the request of the COTR and/or Contracting Officer, the contractor is expected to attend agree upon pre-arranged meetings. VIII. PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE -- The period of performance under this contract shall be from March 1, 1999 through February 29, 2000, with four one year option renewals. IX. POINT OF CONTACT The COTR's name and address will be furnished at contract award. X. TRAVEL AND PER DIEM- The work under this contract does not require travel outside of the Washington Metropolitan area; therefore, no travel expenses are allowed. XI. TYPE OF CONTRACT -- A fixed price contract will be awarded for this requirement. XII. EVALUATION CRITERIA -- The Government willaward a contract resulting from this solicitation to the responsible offeror whose offer conforming to the solicitation will be most advantageous to the Government, price and other factors considered. The following factors will be used to evaluate offers: Technical capability- The Contractor shall meet all of the requirements in I thru VIII above. Past Performance -- The Contractor shall provide revelant corporate past performance in similar contracts for three locations, which shall include the following: (1) Name of client, point of contact and phone number (2) Estimated annual dollar value of contract (3) Type of services or supplies included in the contract (4) Date of contract award and term of contract. Price -- The price proposal shall be accurate and complete and shall consist of the offeror's price to furnish phones and maintenance services for cellular phones and portable/installed mobile cellular phones. The Contractor shall also provide cellular telephone activation fees, peak time per minute charge, non-peak time per minute charge, analog access monthly charge per phone, roaming in market area per minute charge, roaming out of market area per minute charge, basic digital service monthly charge per phone, text messaging monthly charge per phone and operator assisted text messaging monthly charge per phone service rate plans, air time and land time charges if applicable, optional cellular accessories such as: spare batteries, additional desktop chargers, additional travel chargers, cigarette lighters adapters and leather cases. The price proposal shall show pricing for each year separately. Technical, past performance, and price are in descending order of importance. All interested vendors may request copies of the 1449 form and all applicable Commercial Items clauses. XV. SIC CODE -- The SIC Code for this requirement is 4812, 1500 employees. Posted 01/22/99 (W-SN290626). (0022)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0032 19990126\D-0003.SOL)