V7-High Throughput Satellite (HTS) Commercial Satellite Communications (COMSATCOM)

See attached RFI titled: "USCG_Sources_Sought_Annoucement - HTS."**Amended RFI deadline submission to 26 June at 3:00PM EST.*** See attached PDF "RFI HTS_Questions and Answers" for details.SUBJECT: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS TO THE REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) 70Z079-20-RFI-2121791PT1099 FOR “V7-HIGH THROUGHPUT SATELLITE (HTS) COMMERCIAL SATELLITECOMMUNICATIONS (COMSATCOM)”Note: The RFI deadline for submissions has been EXTENDED until 3:00PM Eastern Time, 26 June2020.Question 1: Is this contract a re-compete? If so which vendor is the incumbent and what is thecontract number?Response: This is solely a Request for Information for market research purposes. KVH is the incumbentprovider for V7-HTS systems right now under contract HSCG79-10-D-PT1112.Question 2: Will the Government identify the Committed Information Rate (CIR) purchased as part ofthe plan. For instance, what is the minimum guaranteed throughput per vessel?Response: The Government currently purchases individual service plans for

each of our cutters. Each ofthose plans provides a guaranteed level of service to that cutter (e.g. 2 Mbps to the cutter x 512 Kbpsfrom the cutter). That data rate is guaranteed to the cutter on-demand, and the cutter cannot exceedthat data rate. There is no ‘fair-access’ policy applied to USCG data plans. In other words, those plansare not subject to throughput/data rate reductions due to ‘excessive use’. The government is open toalternative approaches for structuring airtime purchases, include buying bandwidth in bulk, sharing itamong a number of cutters and establishing a minimum and/or maximum CIR for each cutter. Ifindustry would like to propose an alternative approach, the more detail you can provide, especially interms of how bandwidth would be purchased and how it would be shared, the better. It is important tothe Government to have no fair access policy or bandwidth throttling based on usage.Question 3: Will the Government identify the Maximum Information Rate (MIR) purchased as part ofthe plan?Response: See answer above.Question 4: Will the Government identify the amount of time they actually achieve the MIR on a pervessel basis?Response: No. The government does not have this information available.Question 5: Will the Government identify the satellite modem(s) (iDirect, Comtech, Viasat) currentlyused to support the V7-HTS installed systems?Response: KVH Industries Inc., V7-HTS Integrated CommBox Modem (ICM).Question 6: How does the Government identify 99.99% availability (Ao)? Is Ao measured by the guaranteed minimum throughput? Are there any measurements at all against the MIR achieved against the plan? What is the link budget analysis link availability for the current systems?Response: The Ao of 99.99% availability is applicable to terrestrial network backhaul. The terrestrialnetwork backhaul includes the connections between the CFE network equipment at the commercialteleport to the Government POP. The end-to-end operational availability (Ao) for each circuit shall begreater than or equal to 98.5%. The end-to-end performance of all circuits shall be calculated daily andaveraged over a 30-day period to determine the overall satellite network availability. The vendor shallcalculate and provide an availability figure at the end of each month for the previous 30 calendardays. The contractor shall calculate operational availability using the formula: End-to-End Ao =Uptime/(Uptime+Downtime).Question 7: With regards to Section 4 - Support Services, does the USCG require 24x7x365 supportwith English speaking technicians and security clearances?Response: The Government does require 24x7x365 support from English speaking technicians. AllContractor personnel with access to DHS/USCG sensitive information, and servicing NOSC personnel,shall have current, active Secret-level security clearances.Question 8: Is the Intelsat Ku-band Epic satellite network the only current service provider? If not,what other satellite operator(s) provide coverage for service?Response: The Ku-band Epic satellite network is the only current service provider for HTS to theGovernment.Question 9: The RFI requirement states that “service should be capable of supporting approximately38 total systems, with approximately 40% of those active at any given time”. We understood theUSCG small cutter fleet to be much greater than 38 vessels, is the service not intended for the entirefleet?Response: The Government currently expects to support HTS service on a minimum of 38cutters. However that number may increase or decrease depending on the needs of the service.This concludes the questions and answers associated with the RFI 70Z079-20-RFI-2121791PT1099.