The Government Accountability Office (GAO) denied LightBox’s challenge to an awarded FCC broadband mapping contract. The GAO found the real estate data analytics firm’s objections about a competitor’s data rights were too broad and had been partially based on misreading the contract.
In June 2021, the FCC issued an RFP seeking the creation and delivery of a dataset concerning broadband internet availability, called the “Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric.” The RFP contemplated a single award based on a best-value tradeoff between four evaluation factors: (1) technical approach; (2) data usage rights; (3) past performance; and (4) price.
The FCC received 12 proposals and alternate proposals from seven “offerers,” including two from Lightbox and two from CostQuest. The CostQuest proposal would cost the government $44,921,200 and the two proposals from Lightbox would cost $38,700,000 and $56,200,000, according to the GAO.
The FCC considered the pros and cons, and concluded that CostQuest’s proposal represented the best value to the government because it had substantive technical advantages over LightBox’s proposals that were not captured by the adjectival ratings, and also had superior past performance, noted the GAO. That’s why the Commission concluded that these advantages were worth paying a $6.2 million price premium over LightBox’s lower priced proposal. The FCC awarded the contract to CostQuest in November 2021, Inside Towers reported.
Soon after, LightBox protested the award for the creation and delivery of a broadband internet availability dataset. Lightbox alleged the agency erred in its evaluation in several respects, that CostQuest’s proposal contained material misrepresentations, and that CostQuest would not be able to meet material solicitation requirements because of the terms of various data licensing agreements.
In a redacted version of the decision released Friday, the GAO said Lightbox alleged the Commission failed to consider that data rights offered by CostQuest were inconsistent with data rights information contained in the Lightbox proposal, as well as other information in the awardee’s proposal. The GAO denied this portion of the protest because the record did not reflect any inconsistencies.
Lightbox alleged that CostQuest can’t license certain data to the agency because the data is licensed from a third party, and that third party does not have the right to allow CostQuest to license the data to the FCC. The GAO dismissed this allegation, saying the arguments are part of a dispute between private parties in which the government is not involved. “In addition, the ancillary question of whether, as a result of these agreements, the awardee will ultimately be able to furnish the agency with appropriate data rights is a question of contract administration not for our forum,” said the GAO in its decision.
Lightbox alleged that CostQuest misrepresented terms of license agreements it held with a third party. The GAO denied this, in part, where the record does not establish that statements in the CostQuest proposal were false. The GAO also dismissed this allegation in part, to the extent “resolving the alleged misrepresentation would require our Office to resolve facially legitimate disputes about differing interpretations of agreements between private parties that our Office does not review.”
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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