The National Data Buoy Center intends to negotiate only with Stratos Mobile Networks, Bethesda, MD, for 123 each Iridium air time activated phones.  This is an extension of existing iridium services previously established by the Pacific Marine Envirnonmental Lab (PMEL) in support of the DART project.  This service can only be provided through a commercial iridium VAR.  Any change to another VAR would require replacement of the Iridium SIM cards in each buoy to transfer the accounts to a new provider, resulting in exorbitant costs to the  Governement in order to visit each deployed buoy to exchange SIM cards.