SOLICITATION NOTICE
B -- B: TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE FOR ROMANIA CABLE SYSTEMS LAST MILE SOLUTION PILOT PROJECTS
- Notice Date
- 4/25/2002
- Notice Type
- Solicitation Notice
- Contracting Office
- United States Trade and Development Agency, TDA Contracts Office, TDA Contracts Office, 1621 North Kent Street, Suite 200, Arlington, VA, 22209-2131
- ZIP Code
- 22209-2131
- Solicitation Number
- Reference-Number-0170066B
- Response Due
- 5/30/2002
- Archive Date
- 6/14/2002
- Point of Contact
- Evangela Kunene, Procurement Data Manager, Phone 703-875-4357, Fax 703-875-4009,
- E-Mail Address
-
ekunene@tda.gov
- Description
- Submission Proposal Place: Mr. Alexandru Oprea, General Manager, Romania Cable Systems, Sfanta Vineri 25 street bl. 105 C, Bucharest, Romania, Tel: +40 (1) 30.10.800, Fax: +40 (1) 30.10.840, Email: alexo@rdsnet.ro : The Grantee invites submission of qualifications and proposal data (collectively referred to as the "Proposal") from interested U.S. firms which are qualified on the basis of experience and capability to provide technical assistance for a ?Last-Mile Solution? telecommunications pilot project with Romania Cable Systems (RCS) in Romania. Internet penetration remains low in Romania, but continues to grow at about 5-6% per month. With over 150 Internet Service Providers (ISPs), a domestic provider such as RCS has quickly become the largest ISP and CATV (cable television) provider with an enormous private fiber optic network in the country. This network currently covers an area stretching between Bucharest and the western border of Hungary. The company has approximately 800,000 subscribers. While already a major provider of data transmission services on a national scale, RCS is currently preparing to launch fixed-line telephony service in anticipation of telecom sector liberalization in January 2003. RCS is regarded as one of the potential key competitors within the Romanian telecommunications market after liberalization. Experts consider Romania?s current telephony infrastructure, owned by the incumbent monopoly Romtelecom, to be extremely poor. Despite enormous demand, fixed-line penetration remains low - under 20%. RCS thus believes that the availability of its network for alternative voice-services will be beneficial to the country and in line with the Government?s declared policy of improving telecommunications infrastructure to facilitate liberalization. RCS has now proposed a series of pilot projects to determine the best connectivity option for a larger roll out to provide telephony services. This last mile connectivity will include all cabling and equipment that runs between the company?s network backbone and the telephone receiver itself. As part of this pilot, RCS will evaluate U.S. manufactured products from Shoreline, Nortel, Franklin, Tempest Gateway and others for the last mile connectivity to complement existing backbone equipment. Within its existing networks, RCS already uses a substantial array of U.S. manufactured equipment from Cisco, Scientific Atlanta, Motorola, ADC (U.S. factory), Times Fiber, 3Com and others. The three pilot projects will take place in Bucharest, Oradea and Arad. For each of the three pilot projects, RCS will deploy certain telecommunications equipment to establish the last-mile connectivity to service residents of pre-identified apartment blocks in certain districts. Within each of these apartment blocks, RCS has already built systems for distribution within the apartment buildings. The selected contractor will be asked to: 1) assess the pilot technical solutions and equipment requirements, 2) procure, deliver and install pilot equipment, 3) develop specifications for follow-up procurement, 4) assess the environmental impact of these projects, 5) prepare a Final Report for submission to TDA. The U.S. firm selected will be paid in U.S. dollars from a $278,400 grant to the Grantee from the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (TDA). In addition, RCS will contribute a cost share of U.S. $30,900 to the overall project cost of $309,300. A detailed Request for Proposals (RFP), which includes requirements for the Proposal, the Terms of Reference, and a background definitional mission report are available from TDA, at 1621 N. Kent Street, Suite 200, Arlington, VA 22209-2131. Requests for the RFP should be faxed to the IRC, TDA at 703-875-4009. In the fax, please include your firm?s name, contact person, address, and telephone number. Some firms have found that RFP materials sent by U.S. mail do not reach them in time for preparation of an adequate response. Firms that want TDA to use an overnight delivery service should include the name of the delivery service and your firm's account number in the request for the RFP. Firms that want to send a courier to TDA to retrieve the RFP should allow one hour after faxing the request to TDA before scheduling a pick-up. Please note that no telephone requests for the RFP will be honored. Please check your internal fax verification receipt. Because of the large number of RFP requests, TDA cannot respond to requests for fax verification. Requests for RFPs received before 4:00 PM will be mailed the same day. Requests received after 4:00 PM will be mailed the following day. Please check with your courier and/or mail room before calling TDA. Only U.S. firms and individuals may bid on this TDA financed activity. Interested firms, their subcontractors and employees of all participants must qualify under TDA's nationality requirements as of the due date for submission of qualifications and proposals and, if selected to carry out the TDA-financed activity, must continue to meet such requirements throughout the duration of the TDA-financed activity. All goods and services to be provided by the selected firm shall have their nationality, source and origin in the U.S. or host country. The U.S. firm may use subcontractors from the host country for up to 20 percent of the TDA grant amount. Details of TDA's nationality requirements and mandatory contract clauses are also included in the RFP. Interested U.S. firms should submit their Proposal in English directly to the Grantee by 4:00 pm (EST +7) local time, May 30, 2002 at the above address. Evaluation criteria for the Proposal are included in the RFP. Price will not be a factor in contractor selection, and therefore, cost proposals should NOT be submitted. The Grantee reserves the right to reject any and/or all Proposals. The Grantee also reserves the right to contract with the selected firm for subsequent work related to the project. The Grantee is not bound to pay for any costs associated with the preparation and submission of Proposals.
- Record
- SN00066451-W 20020427/020425213546 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
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