FCC_BDC_RFI_Mobile_App_v2.pdf

Federal Communications Commission

Request for Information

FCC Speed Test Mobile Application for

Broadband Data Collection

December 13, 2022

Prepared by:

Federal Communications Commission

Office of Engineering and Technology

45 L Street NE

Washington, DC 20554

Request for Information – FCC Broadband Data Collection Mobile Application

FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

BROADBAND DATA COLLECTION PROGRAM

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

This Request for Information (RFI) is published to determine the interest and capabilities of potential offerors.

Disclaimer

This notice is for information and planning purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation for bids, quotes, or proposals. This notice does not obligate the Government to solicit for this requirement or award a contract and does not obligate the Government to reimburse interested parties for any costs incurred to prepare or provide a response to this RFI. While questions are welcome, the Government is not obligated to provide a response to any questions received in response to this RFI.

Introduction

The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) Office of Engineering and Technology, in coordination with its Broadband Data Task Force (BDTF), Wireless Telecommunications Bureau

(WTB), and Office of Economics and Analytics (OEA), is seeking information on sources capable of meeting the objectives set forth below. We seek information about vendors able to provide a mobile application (app) for commercially available personal mobile devices (Android and iOS operating systems). The app would need to measure the availability and performance of wireless broadband networks (e.g., 3G, 4G, 5G, and Wi-Fi) throughout the United States. The application must be able to collect, from users’ mobile devices with their consent, users’ personally identifiable information, such as their geographic location and contact information, the parameters of the network connection and cell/carrier provider, and detailed network performance metrics as prescribed by the FCC (including download/upload throughput speeds, latency, packet loss, and jitter). The vendor must store and transmit the collected data to the FCC’s data and IT systems via an API. To help ensure the data are unbiased, the vendor must contract for and maintain a sufficiently dense network of carrier-neutral test servers, and the application must select the most optimal server located close to a major internet exchange point within the United States when conducting each network performance measurement initiated by a mobile device. Vendors can download and use the current version of the FCC Speed Test app on an Android or iOS mobile device to gain a better understanding of the requirements. Vendors are encouraged to respond to this RFI if they can meet the full requirements.

Background

The Broadband DATA Act (BDA), enacted in March 2020, requires the FCC to improve its collection of broadband availability data across the country. Among other things, the BDA requires the FCC to establish: 1) a user-friendly challenge process through which consumers, State, local, and Tribal governmental entities, and other entities or individuals may submit coverage data to the FCC to challenge the accuracy of the coverage maps and any information submitted by a https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.samknows.fcc&hl=en_US https://apps.apple.com/us/app/fcc-speed-test/id794322383 provider regarding the availability of mobile broadband and its technology type; and 2) a crowdsourcing process through which entities or individuals may submit specific information about broadband network availability in the United States on an ongoing basis to supplement the information submitted by broadband internet service providers. The mobile application would enable the two processes, mobile challenge and crowdsourcing, to collect and submit the required data to the FCC as part of the Broadband Data Collection (BDC) program.

Mobile Application (FCC Speed Test)

The vendor would need to provide an ad-free, FCC Speed Test app (App), at no cost to the end user, for download on both the Google Play store and the Apple App Store for commercially available personal Android and iOS mobile devices, respectively. App users would initiate either the challenge or the crowdsourcing process to test the performance of their wireless network connection and potentially dispute the coverage claimed by their mobile wireless broadband service provider. The results of each test would be transmitted to the vendor’s database. The vendor would then compile and transmit the data to the FCC on a regular basis per the data requirements set forth under Sections 1 through 5 in BDC Data Specification for Mobile Speed

Test Data (https://us-fcc.app.box.com/v/bdc-mobile-speedtest-spec). Additional information about the current FCC Speed Test app’s test-system architecture and methodology is provided in

2022 FCC Speed Test App Technical Description: https://www.fcc.gov/file/24078/download.

The vendor is encouraged to provide, to the extent possible, an anticipated project timeline; test-system architecture and infrastructure plans for unbiased network performance measurement;

minimum or target number of test servers to be deployed; and wireframes of mobile application screens depicting user-interface flow and functionalities, such as data/location sharing permissions, challenge/crowdsource/Wi-Fi speed test procedure, automated speed test capability, test history and statistics, coverage maps, etc. For reference, the BDC program’s first published version of the FCC Speed Test app can be downloaded for Android and iOS, and additional details can be found on https://www.fcc.gov/BroadbandData/consumers.

Development, Operations, and Maintenance Services

The vendor would need to be able to provide:

1. Complete development, testing, and launch of the App.

2. Multiple secure, provider-neutral test servers within the United States.

3. Technical administration of the speed test data collection and storage, as well as monitoring and maintaining the health and quality of the measurement network.

4. Maintenance of the App to the highest standards on emerging measurement techniques, future network technologies, new devices, operating systems, etc.

5. Technical support to users of the App.

RFI Questions

The Government requests that respondents confine their responses to the information requested below. All responses to this RFI should focus on the specific categories of information requested.

https://us-fcc.app.box.com/v/bdc-mobile-speedtest-spec https://www.fcc.gov/file/24078/download https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.samknows.fcc&hl=en_US https://apps.apple.com/us/app/fcc-speed-test/id794322383 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/fcc-speed-test/id794322383 https://www.fcc.gov/BroadbandData/consumers

Respondents are encouraged to include responses to the items listed below and, depending on the responder’s capability, may respond to all or only a subset of these items. Please identify your responses by the numeric item below to which it responds. Reponses to the RFI should not exceed

15 pages (excluding a cover page, table of contents, and any company portfolio). Use Times New

Roman 12-point font, single spaced type with one-inch margins.

In response to the RFI, please provide the following information:

Table 1

Corporate Overview

1.1 Name of Company.

1.2 Address of Company.

1.3 Company Website URL.

1.4 Name, title, phone number, and email address of primary company point of contact for this RFI response.

1.5 Company size standard and socio-economic standing; e.g., large business, small business, 8(a) small business, veteran-owned small business, service-disabled veteran-owned small business, HUB Zone small business, small, disadvantaged business, or women-owned small business.

1.6 Please confirm whether your company is currently a certified 8(a) program participant.

1.7 If the response to item 1.6 is “yes,” then please provide the entry and exit dates of your company’s participation in the 8(a) program.

1.8 Please state whether your company is Tribally owned, an Alaska Native Corporation

(ANC), a Native Hawaiian Organization (NHO) or Other Native American entity in relation to the 8(a) program.

1.9 Please list any GSA Schedule contracts or Government Wide Acquisition Contract

(GWAC) held by your company which may be relevant to the scope of the draft requirements described in this notice.

1.10 If under the GSA Schedules, please identify the Special Item Numbers (SINs) under the GSA consolidated Multiple Award Schedule that would be required to provide a total solution for a requirement similar in size, scope, and complexity.

1.11 Please state whether your company has employees who could serve as key personnel who are able to be onboarded and fully cleared by FCC Security Office to start work within 20 days of contract award date.

1.12

Please share any questions you would be likely to ask if the requirements attached were included, as is, as part of a final solicitation.

1.13 What, if any, risks or other factors does your company foresee that may deter your company from submitting a quote on this requirement?

Table 2

Capabilities and Approaches

2.1 Please describe your company/business unit’s capabilities, products, and services in providing a mobile speed test application for Android and iOS operating systems or for any other platform.

2.2 Please describe your company/business unit’s capabilities, products, and services in providing wireless and wireline broadband network analysis and performance measurement tools and services.

2.3 What experience does your company have with mobile application development?

2.4 What experience does your company have with network performance measurement services or tools development for wireless and wireline networks?

2.5 How many enterprise clients (e.g., government and Tribal entities, private companies, etc.) have used your service and tools? How many of these clients are federal agencies?

2.6 What key performance indicators or other metrics does your company use to measure the quality, accuracy, and efficiency of your network performance measurement techniques? How do these differ, if at all, between wireless and wireline broadband networks? How do these differ, if at all, between mobile operating systems?

2.7 What experience does your company have with network performance measurement data collection, analysis, traffic modeling, etc. of wireless and wireline broadband networks?

2.8 Please provide a summary of your recent mobile application development and network data analysis experience.

2.9 Please provide a detailed explanation of your current mobile applications or other related wireless and/or wireline broadband network analysis tools, including checks to minimize bias in testing results.

2.10 Please provide, to the extent possible, an anticipated project timeline; test-system architecture and infrastructure plans for unbiased network performance measurement; minimum or target number of test servers to be deployed; and wireframes and flows of mobile application screens depicting user-interface and functionalities, etc. for development of a speed test app described in the Mobile

Application section above.

2.11 Please provide your company’s capabilities and additional details that relate to the information provided in the Mobile Application section above. Please include the technical and business roles needed from your perspective for a successful app development that meets your proposed timeline.

2.12 Please describe your approach to project management, including any certification(s) or training(s) you or your company have received related to project management, approach to prioritizing competing development needs, processes for identifying, tracking, and managing risks, approach to categorizing and responding to urgent client requests, and procedures for creating a development budget, tracking expenditure and potential budget shortfalls, and controlling development costs while continuing to optimize end-product to meet emerging security, industry, or other developmental requirements .

2.13 Please provide a list of up to three relevant contracts from the last five years in which your company has performed work of similar scope and scale.

Please include:

• Name of Client Organization;

• Contract Number;

• Period of Performance;

• Dollar Value;

• Contact Information for Client Reference (Email & Phone); and

• Detailed description of Relevant Products and Tasks Performed.

Submission Instructions:

Responses shall be emailed to Teresa.Dailey@fcc.gov on or before 1:00 pm ET, Friday, January

13, 2023. Responses by phone will not be accepted. The subject line shall state: “<INSERT

VENDOR NAME>, BDC Mobile Application - RFI Response.”

Please address your response to:

Teresa F. Dailey

Contracting Officer

Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

Office of the Managing Director (OMD)

Enterprise Acquisition Center (EAC) mailto:Teresa.Dailey@fcc.gov