All bid deadlines are 11:59pm Pacific Time the date of the bid deadline listed unless otherwise noted.
· All Questions and Bids must be submitted using the on-line IFCB system. If for some reason the system is down before the respective deadline, please email your bid to info@crwconsulting.com or fax it to 918.445.0049. Bids or questions submitted in this fashion will be disqualified if the on-line system is active at the time of submission.
· Bidder must agree to participate in USF Program (AKA “E-rate”) for the corresponding funding year.
· Please include the correct Service Provider Identification Number (SPIN) on your bid.
· By submitting a bid, bidder certifies that the bidder does have a valid (non-red light status) SPIN for the E-rate program at the time of submission. Should the Applicant discover that the bidder is on red light status, or if the FCC classifies the bidder as on red-light status before work is performed and invoices are paid, the contract will be null and void and the applicant will have no payment obligations to the bidder.
· Bidder is expected to provide the lowest corresponding price per E-rate rules. See http://www.usac.org/sl/service-providers/step02/lowest-corresponding-price.aspx for details.
· Contracts must not prohibit SPIN changes.
· Bidder must agree to provide the Applicant the choice of discount methods (SPI or BEAR).
· Bidder will be automatically disqualified if the District determines that the bidding company has offered any employee of the District any individual gift of more than $20 or gifts totaling more than $50 within a 12 month period.
· All contracts awarded will be contingent upon E-rate funding and final board approval. The applicant may choose to do all or part of the project upon funding notification.
· All contracts awarded under this IFCB bidding process may be voluntarily renewed by the applicant, upon written notice to the provider, for five consecutive one year terms. Please include this language in your final contract.
· All applicable fees, surcharges, and taxes must be identified on the bid. E-rate rules require the applicants to evaluate the price of eligible goods and services that will be listed on the 471 application during the competitive bidding process. Fees and surcharges that apply but are not listed on the bid will be the responsibility of the bidding company, should their bid be awarded.
· E-rate rules require applicants to evaluate the cost of eligible goods and services, and to cost-allocate out the amount for ineligible services from their funding request. If your company will be bidding internet access service, please identify the amount to be cost-allocated out for the ineligible services – email service, web hosting, content filtering, or other bundled ineligible services.
· INTERNET ACCESS DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR: Any and all installation charges must be identified on your bid. If you submit a bid indicating that installation charges may apply without listing those charges, we will consider your bid incomplete and disqualify your bid.
UPDATE 09/08/2020: The bid deadline has been extended.
Internet Access – Minimum 1 GB bandwidth up to 10 GB bandwidth. Please provide bids in 1 GB increments. The terminating address for this connection is 4004 Moulton St., Greenville, TX 75401. Please provide bids for 3 year terms. Please include service level agreements with your bid. E-rate rules require applicants to evaluate the cost of eligible goods and services, and to cost-allocate out the amount for ineligible services from their funding request. If your company will be bidding internet access service, please identify the amount to be cost-allocated out for the ineligible services – email service, web hosting, content filtering, or other bundled ineligible services.
NOTE: Per USAC’s current guidance about applying for Internet access this applicant is checking the Leased Lit Fiber, Internet Access: ISP Service only and Internet Access and Transport Bundled.
INTERNET ACCESS DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR: Any and all installation charges must be identified on your bid. If you submit a bid indicating that installation charges may apply without listing those charges, we will consider your bid incomplete and disqualify your bid.
Fiber Connections – 13 fiber connections, all coming back to 4004 Moulton St. in a spoke or ring configuration. Leased lit fiber please provide bids for 10 GB. Leased dark fiber please provide bids for 48 strands. Please provide bids for 3 year terms. Please provide service level agreements with your bid.
Fiber locations:
4004 Moulton St, Greenville Texas 75401 – Main Administration Building
3515 Lions Lair Rd, Greenville Texas 75402 – Greenville High School
3923 Henry St, Greenville Texas 75401 – Houston Education Center
3611 Texas St, Greenville Texas 75401 – Greenville Middle
3201 Stanford St, Greenville Texas 75401 – Greenville Six Grade Center
6005 Stonewall St, Greenville Texas 75402 – Bowie Elementary School
2110 College St, Greenville Texas 75401 – Carver Elementary School
1316 Wolfe City Drive, Greenville Texas 75401 – Crockett Elementary School
6321 Jack Finney Blvd, Greenville Texas 75402 – Lamar Elementary School
9315 Jack Finney Blvd, Greenville Texas 75402 – Katherine Johnson Stem Academy
2504 Carver St, Greenville Texas 75401 – LP Waters Early Childhood Center
3504 King St, Greenville Texas 75401 – Service Center
3703 Templeton St, Greenville Texas 75401 – Transportation Department
Answer:
Question 1: I want to confirm that this is for a point to point for 13 sites coming back via a “hub & spoke” terminating back to the main site at 4004 which will also have a PNT as well as a 10GB Internet circuit which they will use the 10Gb to push out to the sites to access the public internet.
Yes this is for a 10Gb fiber network that all connects back to 4004 Moulton St. Then the ISP provided would be a 10Gb outgoing connection to the internet.
Question 2: On the dark fiber side, is there language within the RFP that specifies for the length of construction for dark fiber from the award of the winning bid? Additionally, If there is anything that says if the dark fiber provider can’t complete in less than the term specified (even if at just one location), what is the penalty?
There is no specific language in the RFP for the length of construction for dark fiber as that would be determined during the scope of the project. Additionally, the RFP does not have any language to cover penalties if it isn’t completed in a specified time this would be determined during the scoping phase of the contract.
Question 3: Would you accept both a lit and dark fiber proposal from the same vendor to show cost difference? Lit fiber seems to benefit the LEC here (name redacted) would that be the direction that the school district is leaning toward.
Both dark and lit proposals will be considered and evaluated according to USAC guidelines. Please do not list the name of possible bidding companies, as USAC has said that this is a potential bidding violation.
Question 4: In reference to bullet point: “Bidder must agree to provide the applicant the choice of discount methods (SPI or BEAR)” – Does the provider have to be able to accommodate both discount types? If the provider is only able to offer one of the two, does this disqualify their bid? Again, only LECs such as (name redacted) are able to offer both discounts, so this would favor those providers over leased fiber providers.
E-rate rules require service providers to allow the applicant the choice of either SPI or BEAR. No service provider should tell their client that they can’t do one or the other. The bidder must be able to accommodate either SPI or BEAR as a discount method.
Question 5: What is the timeline for decision from the close date of 10/2/2020? What would be the signature timeline from the award of the winning bid be?
Approximately two-three months after the close date we would have a signature initiated.
Question 6: We are a carrier agnostic telecom brokerage and may have multiple bids from a few of our carrier partners. Would we be able to submit those multiple bids or would you want us to choose one of them and submit?
As a telecom brokerage, GISD would like you to put forward your best/most cost-effective bid – but please be sure you bid all WAN circuits if that is one of the services that you plan to bid. We require complete bids for the WAN – not just partial bids. Bids that do not include all of the requested WAN circuits will be disqualified.
Answer:
Should a managed router/edge device be included with Internet circuit?
There will need to be some form of edge device either a router or digital signal convertor.
Are additional IP addresses needed, if so what IP block size?
13 IP range minimum block size.
Are there any redundancy/diversity considerations for access?
None
Are there certain fiber access providers that are more or less advantages/dis-advantages?
There are no fiber providers that are more or less advantages. All providers will be rated according to their bid proposals and USAC guidelines.
Are there any requirements for portal to deliver circuit performance metrics and statistics.
There are no requirements for a portal.
