GSA's new satellite contract a one-stop shop for government

A new General Services Administration satellite procurement will be a one-stop shop for all government commercial satellite communications needs, agency officials claimed on Tuesday when unveiling one of its latest contracts.

GSA executives said at an industry briefing on Wednesday the five-year, $10 billion Future Comsatcom Services Acquisitions program is a common marketplace for all the products and services federal agencies require for satellite communications. In line with an August 2009 agreement with the Defense Information Systems Agency, GSA will manage the purchase of satellite services for all agencies, including the Defense Department.

The new procurement will be flexible enough to support evolving missions, said Bruce Bennett, DISA's director of satellite communications. For example, Defense can purchase personnel-tracking infrastructure, while civilian agencies likely will take advantage of continuity of operations services for disaster response.

"[Defense] needs all of those solution types out there," said Kevin Gallo, GSA program manager for FCSA. "The [civilian] government, it's a subset of that, so there's not really much that the civilian side needs that [Defense] doesn't."

FCSA replaces DISA's Inmarsat Airtime and Equipment, and the Defense Information System Network Satellite Transmission Service-Global contracts, both of which will expire in 2012. It also replaces GSA's Satcom II contract, which expires in 2011. The contract calls for indefinite delivery-indefinite quantity to provide end-to-end satellite services known as Custom Satcom Solutions, or CS2, as well as Schedule 70 contracts, which also are open to state and local governments.

GSA last week released a draft request for proposals for CS2. Responses are due April 21, and a final RFP is expected next quarter. The Schedule 70 refresh kicked off in February.

According to Gallo, the combined effort with DISA will save money; Bennett has said he expects savings of 10 percent to 15 percent on the acquisition of satellite bandwidth through the combined procurement program.