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Pre-bid Conference
Summary
1. This Summary shall be referred to as "Addendum 1" and should be appended
to each of the three respective RFP's and be incorporated into the same
by reference.
Meeting convened: 10:33a.m.
Attendees: (Exhibit 1)
Presentation: Guy M. Cahill, Director of Finance and Operations
2. Background and Scope of Project
Mr. Cahill reiterated the scope of the WAN, LAN, and maintenance projects
as contained in the respective RFP's found at www.pekin.net/civicnet/.
Mr. Cahill outlined to the respective bidders that the civicNET Members
have committed $1.3 million for the procurement of a dark fiber Wide-area
Network including preventative, non-catastrophic maintenance for the first
10 years. $0.8 million has been set aside for the procurement of
the necessary 25Mbs. ATM switches and associated routers for the Local-area
Networks with OC-3 up-links to the WAN. These monies do not include
any discounts that might be available from the FCC's USF.
3. Universal Service Fund
Mr. Cahill noted that civicNET would be built either with or without
FCC USF funding. He noted that discounts were believed to be available
for that portion of hardware dedicated to the LAN. He also noted
that discounts were believed to be available for (1) the maintenance of
networks including WAN's maintained by non-common carriers based upon a
"private letter ruling" received by the district, and , (2) that portion
of a leased WAN used exclusively for Internet traffic and provisioned by
either a common or non-common carrier. Authoritative information
as to the availability of discounts may be obtained from the National Exchange
Carriers Association (the FCC's administrative agent) WEB site at www.neca.org/funds/faslc.htm
It will be the intent of civicNET to dedicate 45Mbs of bandwidth along
the WAN backbone to Internet Traffic (as that is the maximum throughput
available from the State Board of Education's Internet POP), 45Mbs to video
traffic along the WAN backbone, 45Mbs of data traffic, and 20Mbs of bandwidth
to voice telephony.
4. Preferences
Mr. Cahill outlined to the prospective bidders what the civicNET preferences
would be in evaluating a response to its WAN RFP to procure 'dark fiber'.
1st Preference: 1 to 5-year lease with option to buy at a stated, fixed
price or a 99-year lease with an up-front payment with no recurring charges
except for maintenance and then at a pre-determined, fixed annual rate
and not beginning until the eleventh year; both assume preventative, non-catastrophic
maintenance the cost of which is to be included in the first ten years.
2nd Preference: A partnership with one or more providers wherein civicNET
and its Partner(s) subsidize each others interests including WAN maintenance;
assumes an up-front payment with no recurring charges.
3rd Preference: Either of the first two preferences with a subsidy from
the FCC's USF, and then only to the extent permitted by law, rule, or regulation
of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the FCC, and/or Universal Service
Fund.
4th Preference: Reject all bids and proceed with separate negotiations
with local interests having expressed a desire to build and maintain a
high bandwidth WAN, possibly re-bidding at a future date.
5th Preference: Something less than the 1st through 3rd preferences
in terms of length of lease, option to buy, or other factors.
5. General Questions/Responses
· Do the fiber strands 'home-run' back to the QST/ISBE POP in
Peoria? No. The network topology shows both a 'daisy-chaining'
and 'star' deployment of fiber wherein certain prescribed locations are
daisy-chained to one another with each forming a 'HUB' location.
From each HUB are one or more 'spokes' creating a star to the remaining
buildings.
· Are the HUB and Spoke locations depicted on the map provided
the required locations. No; the map provided is for illustrative
purposes only; Providers with existing networks may find other locations
to be more advantageous for the location of HUBS.
· What do the different fiber run colors on the map relate to?
The colors reflect the minimum number of strands required to support civicNET
needs on the illustrative map with one exception: two additional
strands are required between the E. Peoria campus of Illinois Central College
and their downtown Peoria location; Otherwise, a minimum of 4-strands (two
primary, two back-up) are required to each location.
· How many fibers are needed at each location if a provider
chooses to use an existing network? With the exception of ICC, a
minimum of 4-strands (two primary, two back-up) are required to each location.
In addition, ICC requires four more strands dedicated to the interconnect
of their three campuses: ICC-East Peoria, ICC-Health and Public Safety
Building, Peoria, and ICC-Perley Campus-Peoria.
· What existing LAN infrastructure is in place at each of the
buildings of the civicNET members the investment of which needs to be protected?
(This question has been asked of each Member and the answer will be forthcoming
by location.)
· How will you know what equipment will be needed if the HUB
and spoke locations are not set? We will award the WAN-RFP first
and negotiate changes to the LAN-RFP to the extent the number of OC-3 ports
to support the WAN change from location to location; all other aspects
of the LAN-RFP routers and the base ATM switch and associated LAN ports
to support 25Mbs to the desktop should remain unchanged.
· Can a bidder respond to more than one RFP and can they submit
multiple responses? Yes and yes.
· Where does the fiber terminate in Peoria? Two locations.
For the Internet, the termination point is at QST Communications on Southwest
Adams. For ICC's downtown campus, at the ICC Perley Campus and the
Health and Public Safety Campus both on Southwest Adams with the later
adjacent to QST Communications.
· How many fibers does ICC require? Four will be dedicated
between ICC's E. Peoria and two downtown locations; Four additional will
come 'into' and 'out of' the E. Peoria and Health and Public Safety Campuses
as part of the main civicNET backbone.
· What is the maximum distance between hardware along a fiber
run? With the exception of the main Internet run from a point in
Pekin District 108 to the State Board of Education POP at QST Communications
in Peoria 20 kilometers; for the Internet run, 40 kilometers.
· What is the maximum distance of a fiber run? See response
above.
· What is the minimum supported speed required? The fiber
plant and network hardware along the WAN must support 155Mbs ATM and be
scaleable to 622Mbs ATM without anything more than a change in the modules
of the base unit; the base unit investment must be protected. To
the classroom, the LAN switch must support 25Mbs ATM across CAT-5 cabling.
· What is the fiber type along the WAN? LAN? Along
the WAN, single mode fiber must be supported; LAN, CAT-5 cable
· Where does the fiber along the WAN terminate? With the
exception of the ICC East Peoria campus, termination will be on the inside
wall of each building at an easily accessible location near the point of
entry; WAN providers will not have to run fiber within the buildings as
part of this project but will be required to fusion-splice into the fiber
provided by each building/district at the point of entry. (There
may be an opportunity for said same provider to run the necessary fiber
to the appropriate wiring closet.) For ICC East Peoria Campus, the
fiber will enter a utility tunnel and transverse the same to an ICC designated
location within the main building just off the utility tunnel.
· Who will be responsible for the addressing scheme? What
addressing scheme will be used? The addressing scheme will be 'configured'
by the hardware provider as determined jointly by the Pekin Public Schools,
Illinois Central College, the Illinois State Board of Education/Learning
Technology Hub Region 3, and the hardware provider. Information pertaining
to the same will be forthcoming as the question has been re-directed.
The costs for and extent of such services shall be included in the bid
response.
· How do you define preventative, non-catastrophic maintenance?
This is addressed in the Maintenance RFP as a minimum. However, providers
are encouraged to further define their definition of what is and what is
not included in their maintenance agreement and what the costs are for
those items excluded. This should be shown on a separate schedule
labeled: "Schedule 4: Maintenance Service Clarification."
6. Provider SPIN Numbers
If all or part of your response to the civicNET RFP will rely upon
FCC USF discounts, you must provide with your response the SPIN number
for use by the District in completing its FCC Form 471 and by you in completing
FCC Form 486. The following information related to SPIN numbers may
be helpful to those providers who have yet to obtain the same. It
comes to us and is forwarded to you by the Area 3 Learning Technology HUB,
an arm of the Illinois State Board of Education.
· As districts submit their Forms 471, they should have SPIN
(Service Provider Identification Numbers) for every vendor listed in items
15 or 16. SPIN will definitely be needed for the submission of Form
486. Vendors who do not have SPIN can get one by calling 973-560-4440
(soon to be changed to an 800 #). I am also including below the details
from the SLC web site www.slcfund.org/reference/ . This number is
required by the Feds.
· This number should be shown on a separate schedule labeled:
"Schedule 5: Service Provider Identification Number (SPIN)."
7. Deadline for Asking Questions/Receiving Clarifications/Bids Due
Bids are due Monday, March 23, 1998 at 10:30 a.m. (CST). All
questions or requests for clarification must be made by no later than Wednesday,
March 18, 1998 in order that we might prepare a response and communicate
the same to all respective bidders.
8. It has been agreed that all communication shall occur via electronic
mail (e-mail) and may be posted on the civicNET WEB site at: www.pekin.net/civicnet/addendums
9. Questions concerning the map and related analysis should be directed
to: Bob Smith, Network Construction Management, 4215 Shoreline Drive,
Earth City, Missouri 63045 (314) 309-0995.
EXHIBIT 1
CivicNET
PRE-BID CONFERENCE
NAME
COMPANY
Guy M. Cahill
Pekin Public School Dist. #108
Chris Burch
Sprint
John Linhart
Cisco Systems
Frank Walters
AllTech Data Systems
Wayne Richards
Centron
Michael Jensen
GE Capital IT Solutions
Todd Anderson
McLeod USA
Jim Huff
Network Construction Management
Ron Gibson
TCI Network Solutions, Inc.
Bill Barnes
QST Communications
John Gregory
Tel-Star Cablevision, Inc.
Pat Chambers
IBM
Marc Dukes
Daily Times
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