RFI-Draft SOO BSL Fabric 030821.pdf

Federal Communications Commission

Washington, D.C. 20554

March 8, 2021

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

Subject: Request for Information RFI-21-OEA-0001

Title: RFI-Draft Statement of Objectives: Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric

Database Project

Federal Communications Commission is seeking comments on the attached draft Statement of Objectives (SOO) for a Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric Database.

This Request for Information (RFI) is issued for informational purposes to identify vendors capable of performing tasks associated with the range of services described in the attached Statement of Objectives (SOO). This is not a Request for Quote (RFQ) or Request for Proposal (RFP). It is not to be interpreted as a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation or ultimately award a contract. Responses will not be considered as quotes/proposals nor will an award be made as a result of this RFI. The Government will not be responsible for any costs incurred by interested parties in responding to this request for information.

FCC is conducting market research and desires input from industry to assist in requirements planning for a project for the Broadband Data Task Force and Office of Economics and Analytics (OEA), Federal Communications Commission.

A draft SOO is included with this RFI and contains sufficient information for industry to respond to this notice. Please note that the SOO is in DRAFT form and the final requirements may change based on the industry feedback resulting from this RFI.

Draft Statement of Objectives Response Submission Instructions

Response by e-mail is required and should be forwarded to Teresa Dailey, Contract Specialist, via e-mail at teresa.dailey@fcc.gov. Response is requested on or before Monday, March 22, 2021 at 5pm ET. Responses should include the following:

a) Questions you have about this draft statement of objectives;

b) Input and/or recommendations to contribute to the effectiveness of the project and the supporting procurement (e.g., points for clarification, realistic timelines, vendor responsiveness requirements; additional or differing deliverables, efficient contract cost structure, etc.);

c) Whether you prefer not to have your contact information shared with other interested vendors.

d) Capability Information. This section should include the following:

(1) Company Name, Address, Point of Contact(s) (POC) name(s), POC telephone number(s), POC e-mail address, Identification of business size and/or socioeconomic category, CAGE code, DUNS number.

(2) Brief description of experience in providing support for requirements similar to the requirements in the draft SOO, to include the identification of the experience as either Federal or Commercial.

Due to the complex nature of this project and the diverse sets of data products and services that will be needed to complete it, vendors may want to consider partnering to achieve the required tasks and criteria related to expertise and experience. The FCC intends to award one contract as a result of the final solicitation but reserves the right to issue multiple awards or no awards.

This is an RFI. No solicitation exists; therefore, do not request a copy of the solicitation. If a solicitation is released, then it will be synopsized in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 5. It is the potential offeror's responsibility to monitor sites for the release of any solicitation.

DRAFT STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES

1. INTRODUCTION

This is a Draft Statement of Objectives (SOO) for the Contractor to support the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s or Commission’s) broadband mapping program through the provision of Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric (Fabric). This work will support the broadband mapping effort required as part of the Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability Act (Broadband DATA Act), 47 U.S.C. § 641 et. seq.

The FCC is an independent agency established by the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, to regulate communications by wire, radio, television, satellite, and cable. The FCC has collected information about broadband availability since 2000, when it began collecting subscription and connection data for local telephone and broadband services through FCC Form 477. The FCC’s broadband data collection efforts have evolved over time, and in 2013 the Commission adopted the current FCC Form 477 requirement that fixed service providers report a list of census blocks in which they provide access to broadband, and mobile service providers submit geospatial data representing the areas in which they have network coverage.

In early 2020, Congress enacted the Broadband DATA Act, which, among other things, requires the FCC to collect standardized, granular data on the availability and quality of both fixed and mobile broadband Internet access services, to create publicly available coverage maps, to establish processes for members of the public and other entities to challenge and verify the coverage maps, and to create a common dataset of all locations where fixed broadband Internet access service can be installed. In July 2020 and January 2021, the FCC adopted rules for the Digital Opportunity Data Collection, now referred to as the Broadband Data Collection, which will fulfill the mandates of the Act.

2. BACKGROUND

The Broadband Data Task Force, in consultation with Office of Economics and Analytics (OEA), the Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB), Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (WTB), and Office of Engineering and Technology (OET), is directing the implementation of the FCC’s Broadband Data Collection.

The Broadband Data Collection includes several components. To fulfill the requirements of the Broadband DATA Act, the FCC first must collect data on the availability and quality of broadband Internet access service from both fixed and mobile providers, as well as from State, local, and Tribal government entities, other federal agencies, and third parties, if determined to be in the public interest.

Second, to support this collection, the FCC must also establish the Fabric, a database of all locations in the United States where fixed broadband Internet access service has been or could be installed, and incorporate the Fabric into the availability collection. Fixed broadband providers must report their service area in the form of either a polygon shapefile or a list of addresses or locations, and the Fabric will form the foundation for the location- or address-based reporting. Third, the FCC must create and publish, based on the availability collections, maps that depict the availability of fixed and mobile broadband services (both separately and combined). Fourth, the FCC must establish a user-friendly challenge process for the public, as well as State, local, and Tribal governmental entities, to challenge the information included in the Fabric or depicted in the public availability maps, and for providers to respond to such challenges (see 47 CFR § 642(b)(5)(A)). Fifth, the FCC must verify the accuracy and reliability of the availability data collected from providers and other entities. Sixth, to improve data accuracy, the FCC must conduct audits and collect crowdsourced data from entities or individuals on an ongoing basis about the deployment and availability of broadband service. Finally, the FCC must provide technical assistance to: 1) small broadband service providers, those with less than 100,000 connections, to assist them in complying with the requirements of the availability collection; 2) consumers and State, local, and Tribal governments to support their participation in the challenge process; and 3) Indian Tribes, in the form of 12 regional workshops to assist them with submitting verified deployment data.

3. Contract Objectives

FCC’s goal is to establish a Fabric database that supports the Broadband Data Collection. The objectives for the delivery of Fabric services include:

3.1 Project Deliverables

1. A database of all structures in the United States and its territories. A structure is defined as:

a. A building where people live, to include Census-defined housing units; a house, an apartment, a mobile home, a group of rooms, or a single room that is occupied (or if vacant, is intended for occupancy) as separate living quarters; or a building where people live in group quarters (e.g., a skilled nursing facility or college dormitory)

b. A building where people work

2. The latitude and longitude of a point falling within the boundary of the structure, to at least 5 digits of precision

3. An address or addresses associated with each structure in a standardized format

4. The estimated number of residential and/or business units within Multiple Dwelling Units (MDU) and Multiple Tennant Units (MTU)

5. Designation of one or more structures on a property as a Broadband Serviceable Location (BSL), the location to which mass-market broadband Internet access service is or should be made available

6. Classification of each BSL as residential, business or both

7. Classification of reason structure not classified as a BSL, as appropriate, e.g., enterprise/non-mass market, secondary structures

8. API to collect data for corrections to BSLs (from FCC site and others)

9. Quality reports coinciding with each release, if the data are updated every six months, or otherwise at least twice per year if the data are updated more frequently.

3.2 Contract Requirements

1. The contractor is required to have “expertise with respect to geographic information systems”.

47 U.S.C. § 642(b)(1)(A)(ii)(I)

2. The contract Period of Performance is not to exceed five (5) years. 47 U.S.C. § 642(b)(1)(A)(ii)(III)(bb)

3. The contractor is prohibited from “selling, leasing, or otherwise disclosing for monetary consideration any Personally Identifiable Information” developed, accessed, collected, disclosed, obtained, or maintained in connection with this agreement to any entity other than for purposes authorized by this contract or by statute developed in the course of this work. 47 U.S.C. § 642(b)(1)(A)(ii)(III)(cc); 5 U.S.C. § 552a. Personally Identifiable Information is defined as information that can be used to distinguish or trace an individual’s identity, either alone or when combined with other information that is linked or linkable to a specific individual.

4. The dataset shall “at a minimum be updated every 6 months”. 47 U.S.C. § 642(b)(1)(B)(iv)

3.3 Data Usage Rights

The FCC prefers having the ability to make data provided as a deliverable under this contract fully accessible to the public. However, the FCC also recognizes that vendors may rely on commercial data sources to which they have limited access rights or may desire to restrict access to datasets to preserve their commercial interests. Thus, this SOO lays out different Tiers of Data Usage Rights below. Vendors should describe which Tier or Tiers of rights they are able and willing to provide. Generally, the FCC prefers broader data-usage rights and fewer restrictions for parties accessing the data. To the extent that vendors are able to provide access and usage rights with fewer restrictions, they should describe those rights and provide sample language.

3.3.1 Tier 1: Minimum Required Data Usage Rights

The Contractor shall grant to the FCC, including its agents (e.g., third-party contractors) and any FCC-established entities (e.g., the Universal Service Administration Company), a non-exclusive, perpetual license to the data provided as a deliverable under this contract.

o This FCC license shall provide:

Unlimited rights to access, prepare, use, copy, modify, reproduce, prepare derivative works, and distribute the data for internal use, including by and to personnel, third-party contractors, and other entities granted the same license, as necessary to accomplish the goals of the Broadband Data Collection;

Rights to publish aggregate/derivative data, such as broadband coverage by state, county, Metropolitan Statistical Area, Congressional District, Census Designated Place, tribal area, or other US Census Bureau-defined boundary;

Rights to publish and display data via an online map, or in reports or other static formats (e.g. PDF);

Rights to publish complete information about BSLs for a subset of locations to support Universal Service Fund programs; and

Rights to publish metadata via relevant federal channels, including data.gov (or its successors) and the National Spatial Data Infrastructure.

o The FCC’s rights to access, prepare, use, copy, modify, reproduce, prepare derivative works, and otherwise publish the data provided as a deliverable under this contract as set forth above shall not expire at the conclusion of the contract.

o The Contractor shall allow the FCC to provide other parties with rights in the data provided as a deliverable under this contract as described below if the Contractor is unable or unwilling to do so.

o The FCC shall retain full rights to any correction data submitted to the FCC, but shall grant the Contractor a non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable license to use such data for the purpose of correcting or otherwise modifying the Contractor’s data.

The Contractor shall grant to Broadband Data Collection filers, including service providers, Tribal, state, and local governmental entities, and approved third parties, a limited end-user license to the data provided as a deliverable under this contract.

o This end-user license shall provide:

Rights to access, prepare, use, copy, modify, reproduce, and prepare derivative works from the data subject to this end-user license as necessary to generate and submit broadband availability data to the FCC in the Broadband Data Collection; and

Rights to access the data subject to this end-user license via API and/or download from the FCC’s website.

o End-user license terms may optionally:

Limit access to data in a service provider’s footprint (for service providers), legal jurisdiction (for a state, local, or Tribal governmental entity), or other appropriate restricted geography; and

Prohibit commercial use, publication, and/or non-commercial use for purposes beyond broadband mapping.

o End-user license terms must allow for:

Access to the data subject to this end-user license by any filer of broadband availability data in the Broadband Data Collection;

Ability to submit challenge/correction data to correct the data subject to this end-user license; and

Ability to generate a list of points from the data subject to this end-user license from GIS data submitted in the Broadband Data Collection.

The Contractor shall grant to other federal government agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utility Service, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Federal Geographic Data Committee, a limited end-user license to the data provided as a deliverable under this contract.

o This end-user license shall provide:

Rights to publish aggregate/derivative data, such as broadband coverage by state, county, Metropolitan Statistical Area, Congressional District, Census Designated Place, tribal area, or other US Census Bureau-defined, or by other program- or project-defined areas;

Rights to publish and display data via an online map, or in reports or other static formats (e.g. PDF); and

Rights to access the data subject to this end-user license via API and/or download from the FCC’s website.

o End-user license terms may optionally:

Prohibit publication and non-commercial use for purposes beyond broadband mapping.

o End-user license terms must allow for:

Access to the data subject to this end-user license by any other federal government agency;

Ability to submit challenge/correction data to correct the data subject to this end-user license; and

Ability to generate a list of points from the data subject to this end-user license from GIS data submitted in the Broadband Data Collection

Other Individuals (and non-filer third parties) o Web access to view and correct BSL data. No programmatic or scripted access.

o Ability to submit challenge/correction data (including appropriate privacy notice)

3.3.2 Tier 2: Preferred Data Usage Rights

The Contractor shall grant to the FCC, including its agents (e.g., third-party contractors) and any FCC-established entities (e.g., the Universal Service Administration Company), a non-exclusive, perpetual license to the data provided as a deliverable under this contract.

o This FCC license shall provide:

All FCC license rights and conditions described in the Tier 1: Minimum Required

Data Usage Rights section above; and Rights to publish or otherwise make publicly available the data on the FCC’s website, for download, or via API access, subject to an end-user license.

The Contractor shall grant to any party accessing the data made publicly available by the FCC a limited end-user license to such data.

o This end-user license shall provide:

Rights to prepare, use, copy, modify, reproduce, and prepare derivative works from the data subject to this end-user license; and Rights to access the data subject to this end-user license via API and/or download from the FCC’s website.

o End-user license terms may optionally:

Prohibit commercial use, publication, and/or non-commercial use for purposes beyond broadband mapping.

o End-user license terms must allow for:

Access to the data subject to this end-user license by the public; and Ability to submit challenge/correction data to correct the data subject to this end-user license.

3.3.3 Tier 3: Most-Preferred Data Usage Rights

The Contractor shall grant to the FCC, including its agents (e.g., third-party contractors) and any FCC-established entities (e.g., the Universal Service Administration Company), a non-exclusive, perpetual license to the data provided as a deliverable under this contract.

o This FCC license shall provide:

All FCC license rights and conditions described in the Tier 2: Preferred Data

Usage Rights and Tier 1: Minimum Required Data Usage Rights sections above.

The Contractor shall grant to any party accessing the data made publicly available by the FCC a limited end-user license to such data.

o This end-user license shall provide:

All end-user license rights described in the Tier 2: Preferred Data Usage Rights section above.

o End-user license terms may optionally:

Require appropriate attribution, but cannot otherwise prohibit commercial use, publication, and/or non-commercial use for purposes beyond broadband mapping.

o End-user license terms must allow for:

Access to the data subject to this end-user license by the public.

4. EVALUATION CRITERIA

Contractors are required to provide information about each of the five factors described below.

Contractors may submit more than one proposal, to allow for, for example, different levels of data rights at different prices; or for different methodologies and data sources at different prices.

The order of importance among the factors are as follows: Factor 1 is the most important factor, followed in descending order by Factor 2, Factor 3, Factor 4, and Factor 5.

Technical proposals will be rated, for Factors 1, 2, 3, and 4 under an adjectival rating scheme. The Vendor’s proposed price will be considered independently of the non-price factors. While Price is a significant factor and will be evaluated, it will not be rated.

While each factor described below will be principally evaluated by reference to proposal volumes and sections chiefly addressing those topics, the Government may also (but is not required to) consider other related or interdependent proposal material in other volumes or sections. The overall objective of the evaluation of these factors is for the Government to ascertain the extent to which it can receive from the Offeror timely, high quality, consistently reliable, and successful work as set forth in the SOO.

4.1 FACTOR 1: QUALITY OF METHODOLOGY

The contractor shall describe the approach it will use, or has used, in creating a database of all structures in the U.S. and the database of Broadband Serviceable Locations (BSLs). The description shall include:

Underlying and/or primary sources of data, including how often each underlying source is updated or refreshed

Description of how data will be, or have been, analyzed or derived from the underlying data sources to determine the following:

o The location of structures o Whether structures are BSLs o Additional required data (location counts, address(es), residential/business classification) Description of the extent to which FCC staff can influence or update the contractor’s approach to determining the location of structures, designation of BSLs, or additional data to meet the FCC’s particular needs

Information about the timeframe for refreshing data, including the shortest time period to refresh the data, and the ability to create monthly, quarterly, or bi-annual datasets

Description of how the contractor will validate and incorporate feedback on the accuracy of the datasets, including challenge data submitted via the FCC

Description of firm contractor’s expertise in working with GIS datasets [as required by the Broadband DATA Act], including a description of any prior work creating or maintaining a nationwide location database

4.2 FACTOR 2: ACCURACY OF DATA

The contractor shall describe its approach to measuring and improving the completeness and accuracy of the databases it will deliver to the FCC, including:

Estimates for the prevalence of different types of errors in the initial dataset, including for over-or under-inclusion of structures (Type I and Type II errors), selection of incorrect buildings as being BSLs, incorrect addresses, incorrect unit counts, misclassification of buildings as being residential or business, or any other types of errors

Description of what methods the contractor will use, or has already used, to measure such errors, including additional data sources used as a check. To the extent contractors use sampling to measure accuracy, they should describe their sampling methodology

Estimates for how the contractor expects the accuracy of the data to change and/or improve over time

Processes the contractor has in place or will create to reduce each type of error

4.3 FACTOR 3: TIMELINESS

The contractor shall describe the time it will take to deliver the initial databases to the Commission.

Contractors should include an estimate for the number of total structures, number of BSLs, and number of addresses in its initial databases.

4.4 FACTOR 4: DATA USAGE RIGHTS

The contractor shall describe the Data Usage Rights, as outlined in the Data Usage Rights section above.

4.5 FACTOR 5: PRICE

5. Place of Performance

The work shall be performed at the contractor’s site except for meetings. Thus, FTA contractor badges will not be issued regarding this requirement.

6. Period of Performance

The period of performance shall be five years in length with one twelve (12) month base year and four one (1) year option periods.

7. Performance Standards

The contractor will be measured by meeting the deliverables on time and the quality of work being presented.

8. Government Furnished Property/Information

The Government will not furnish any property. Non confidential information will be furnished to the contractor.