The Department of Commerce/National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) intends to award a one year subscription with three one-year options as a sole source simplified acquisition to the Mid-Atlantic Crossroads (MAX), University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 for a high speed connection to regional and national research networks available only from the University of Maryland, College Park on behalf of and for the benefit of the Mid-Atlantic Crossroads (MAX). MAX is an advanced regional internetworking project for institutions of higher education, federal and state agencies and certain private entities engaged in research. MAX was founded by a consortium of universities, including Georgetown University, George Washington University and University of Maryland. The mission of MAX is the deployment of emerging technologies to provide access to high performance networking for its participants. In support of the mission, MAX is facilitating a regional network infrastructure (the “MAX Network”), that provides high speed connectivity to advanced research backbones. The MAX Network has established high-bandwidth connectivity for use among MAX participants and to the Internet2 Abilene Network (“Abilene”) operated by the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (“UCAID”). MAX Network traffic serves the teaching, learning, research, and clinical missions of US higher education, plus related support infrastructure and services. MAX does not seek to compete with commodity Internet or other telecommunications services, and is not intended to carry commercial traffic unrelated to MAX or Internet2 goals, or any traffic with proprietary, classified or illegal purposes. All high-speed connections to research networks in the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area must be connected through the metropolitan optical network run by the Mid-Atlantic Crossroads. MAX is the only source that can fulfill this requirement and therefore, the Government intends to solicit only this one source under the authority of FAR 13.106-1(b). Interested concerns may identify their interest and submit a capability statement that demonstrates in written narrative format detailed information addressing their ability to meet the requirement and objectives as described in this synopsis. Capability statements may be e-mailed to [email protected]. Information received will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. This notice is not a request for competitive proposals. No solicitation is available; therefore, requests for such a document will be considered invalid responses. A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed requirement is solely within the discretion of the Government. If no affirmative responses are received within 7 days of this notice the Contracting Officer will proceed with the award to the University of MD.

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