26365_RFP_Telecommunications_Questionnaire.pdf

School District SIP Voice & Telecommunications Services

Request for Proposal — Vendor Response Questionnaire

Company Experience

● Describe your experience serving K-12 school districts.

● Provide references from at least three school district customers of similar size.

● How long has your company provided hosted voice and unified communications services?

● What percentage of your customers are educational institutions?

Solution Overview

● Describe your proposed telephone solution.

● Is the solution cloud-hosted, on-premises, or hybrid?

● What features are included in the base offering?

● How does your solution support multiple campuses and administrative offices?

● Describe how your SIP trunking architecture is delivered across a multi-site district — centralized trunk group versus trunks delivered per building.

SIP Trunking & Technical Requirements

● How many concurrent SIP sessions/calls can be supported per trunk group and in total across the district?

● How is burst capacity handled during district-wide events (e.g., weather closures, lockdowns, mass notifications) when call volume spikes simultaneously across all sites?

● What voice codecs are supported (e.g., G.711, G.729)?

● How is DTMF handled (RFC 2833/RFC 4733, SIP INFO, or in-band)?

● Is T.38 fax relay or analog fax fallback supported for legacy fax lines, alarm panels, and elevator phones?

● Describe SIP signaling and media encryption support (TLS for signaling, SRTP for media).

● Describe your session border controller (SBC) architecture, including geographic redundancy.

● Confirm compatibility and interoperability with the district's existing PBX/UC platform (district to specify make/model).

● Who is responsible for troubleshooting issues that occur between the carrier network and the district's PBX/SBC?

● Describe your number porting process and confirm the district retains ownership of all DIDs.

Network Requirements & Quality of Service

● What bandwidth is required per concurrent call and in total based on the district's projected call volume?

● Confirm maximum one-way latency (target: under 150ms) and round-trip latency (target: under 300ms).

● Confirm maximum jitter (target: under 30ms).

● Confirm maximum packet loss (target: under 1%, ideally under 0.5% for voice).

● What target Mean Opinion Score (MOS) do you guarantee, and how is it measured and reported? (target: 4.0 or higher)

● Describe DSCP marking/prioritization (e.g., EF per RFC 4594) applied to SIP signaling and RTP media, and confirm whether this marking is honored end-to-end across your network or only at the access layer.

● If SIP trunking rides over a shared data/internet circuit, how do you guarantee voice is not degraded by data traffic (e.g., 1:1 device usage, testing windows, streaming)? Is a committed information rate (CIR) reserved for voice?

● Describe traffic shaping/policing applied at the network handoff to each site.

● Can your solution operate over the district's existing network infrastructure, or does it require dedicated circuits?

● What firewall, SBC, or network configuration changes are required on the district's side?

● Describe your QoS monitoring and reporting capabilities (latency, jitter, packet loss, MOS) — is per-site reporting available on an ongoing basis (portal or monthly report)?

● What remedies are provided if QoS metrics fall below agreed thresholds for a sustained period?

● Provide a network diagram showing where QoS marking is applied and trusted from the district edge to the PSTN.

● Describe the acceptance testing/burn-in process used to confirm QoS thresholds are met before final cutover and payment.

Last-Mile / Local Access Circuit

● Describe how the last-mile access circuit will be provisioned to each district site. Do you own and operate the local loop directly, or will delivery require interconnection with an incumbent local exchange carrier or other last-mile provider (e.g., Frontier, Verizon) serving the Tampa Bay area?

● For any site where you do not own the last-mile facility, identify the underlying last-mile carrier and confirm whether a facility check has been performed to confirm availability and capacity at that address.

● If the last-mile segment is provided by a third-party carrier, who holds the SLA for that segment — your organization or the underlying carrier — and does your uptime/MTTR guarantee extend to outages occurring on that segment?

● Describe your process for escalating and resolving an outage caused by the underlying last-mile provider, including expected timelines and communication to the district during that outage.

● What last-mile access types are available at our sites (fiber, copper/DSL, coax, fixed wireless), and which type would be proposed for each site?

● Can you provide diverse last-mile entry (e.g., separate physical paths or underlying carriers) for critical sites such as district headquarters or a data center?

● Will you provide documentation identifying the underlying last-mile carrier for each site, so the district knows who else may need to be contacted during a prolonged outage?

Reliability and Performance

● What service level agreement (SLA) do you provide for uptime?

● Describe your redundancy and disaster recovery capabilities.

● How do you ensure business continuity during internet or power outages?

● What monitoring tools are used to identify service issues?

Emergency Services

● How does your solution support Enhanced 911 (E911)?

● Can emergency responders identify the caller's exact location within a school?

● How are location updates managed when phones are moved?

● Describe emergency notification and mass alert integration capabilities.

● Confirm compliance with Kari's Law (direct 911 dialing without a prefix, and on-site notification when 911 is dialed) and RAY BAUM'S Act (dispatchable location) requirements.

Security

● Describe your cybersecurity measures.

● Is voice traffic encrypted in transit and at rest

● What certifications or compliance standards does your organization maintain?

● How do you protect against toll fraud and unauthorized access?

● Describe your incident response procedures.

Administration

● Describe the administrative portal.

● Can district staff manage users/services without vendor assistance?

● What reporting capabilities are available?

● Can administrators make real-time configuration changes?

Implementation

● Provide a proposed implementation timeline.

● Who will serve as the project manager?

● Describe the number porting process.

● How will service interruptions be minimized?

● What training is included for administrators and end users?

• New Installation Description. Provide a brief but comprehensive description of your firm’s capability to provide new installations and capacity increases within 45 calendar days of HCPS’s request.

Support

● Describe your technical support hours.

● Is support available 24/7?

● What are your response and resolution time commitments?

● Are support personnel based locally?

● How are critical outages escalated?

Compliance & E-Rate Program Requirements

● Is your solution eligible for E-Rate Category 1 or Category 2 funding?

● Confirm your organization's SPIN (Service Provider Identification Number) and eligibility status with USAC.

● Describe your experience responding to FCC Form 470 postings and supporting districts through the Form 471 filing process.

● How do you comply with FERPA and other applicable education privacy requirements?

● Are accessibility features available to support users with disabilities (Section 508/ADA)?

Pricing

● One-time implementation costs

● Monthly recurring charges

● Per-user or per-device licensing

● Equipment costs

● Optional feature pricing

● Professional services rates

● Maintenance costs

● Renewal pricing

● Early termination fees

● Will your company offer any financial credits for transition services

Service Level Agreements

● Guaranteed uptime percentage

● Mean time to repair (MTTR)

● Service credits for SLA violations

● Scheduled maintenance notification procedures

Future Growth

● How easily can the solution scale as the district grows?

● Describe your product roadmap for the next three to five years.

● How are software updates delivered?

● Are updates included in the cost?

Vendor Qualifications

● Provide audited financial statements or evidence of financial stability.

● Describe your staffing and support organization.