U.S. Information Agency, Office of Contracts, Room 1611, 330 C Street, S.W., Washington, DC 20547

B -- SURVEY OF ENTERNET CONNECTIVITY AND COST IN EUROPE POC Herman Shaw, 202-205-8412 The U.S. Information Agency (USIA), Bureau of Information (I Bureau), has an anticipated requirement, subject to availability of funding, for a contractor to conduct a study of Internet connectivity and cost in Europe for USIA's use in determining the placement of a mirror site for USIA's present Internet Web and Gopher services. The study must be completed within sixty (60) days. This is not a request for proposal. Therefore, USIA is conducting a market survey to determine whether sources are available to conduct a study of the establishment of a mirror site in ''Europe'' for USIA's present Internet Web and Gopher services. ''Europe'' as used here encompasses Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, Russia and the Newly Independent States (NIS). In order to determine the proper placement of the mirror site, USIA may require a Contractor to conduct a study of the Internet connectivity and cost in the region. The study shall include (but is not limited to) the following elements: 1. A country-by-country survey of Internet connectivity, including the approximate number of Internet providers in business and extent of which the country is linked to others in Europe. With respect to the latter point, USIA is especially interested in relative response times for World Wide Web (WWW) requests, that is, how quickly would a client in, e.g., France receive information from a WWW site located in, e.g., Belgium at various times during the day, as opposed to a request from USIA's home WWW server in the U.S. 2. A country-by-county survey of connectivity costs assuming that USIA's present WWW and Gopher servers in their present state were replicated. 3. Recommendations for the location of the mirror site taking into consideration the connectivity, cost, availability and any other factors the offeror deems appropriate. Firms interested in this possible requirement shall submit literature and brochures decribing their capability and include the following elements: a. Description of the organization including its qualifications for carrying out such a study; b. Plan for the study, including a description of sources and methods; c. Cost and time estimates for carrying out the study. Technical questions in writing concerning the above may be submitted to the address noted below through August 1, 1996. Firms interested in the above shall submit documents, literature and/or brochures with pricing that adequately describes their experience in this area, which could time on August 8, 1996, to: U.S. Information Agency, Office of Contracts, M/KC, 330 C Street, S.W., Room 1611 Washington, D.C. 20547 Attn: Herman Shaw. (0205)

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