GSA and DISA Satellite Partnership Reaches Milestone

17 February 2010

The U.S. General Services Administration and the Defense Information Systems Agency reached a key milestone in creating a common marketplace for commercial satellite communications services. FedBizOpps, the government’s official procurement solicitation site, announced a refresh of Federal Supply Schedule 70 that includes two new special item numbers for COMSATCOM services.

The solicitation contains instructions to vendors detailing how they can qualify for these new COMSATCOM special item numbers and offer their services. The special item numbers are for Transponded Capacity (SIN 132-54), including owning/operating or reselling dedicated bandwidth and power on a communications satellite in any available COMSATCOM frequency band, and Subscription Services (SIN 132-55), consisting of pre-existing, pre-engineered fixed satellite service and/or mobile satellite service solutions.

"We're rapidly putting together all the pieces to bring the best in commercial satellite services to government customers," said Bruce Bennett, DISA's Director and Program Executive Officer for Satellite Communications, Teleport, and Services. "The DISA-GSA partnership will produce superior results for government SATCOM users."

"One of our priorities has been to engage with customers to better understand their requirements and forge strong relationships,” said GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service Assistant Commissioner Ed O’Hare. “The SATCOM initiative is a prime example of this.”

The GSA and DISA satellite communications partnership was formed in August 2009 to provide customers with a single platform for accessing critical communications services that will result in significant savings for taxpayers. The federal government increasingly relies on commercial satellite communications to provide essential, secure communications to disaster recovery teams, domestic emergency responders, and the war fighter. Services are also used to support distance learning and remote access to global government networks.