Pre-proposal Conference Questions and Answers.doc

Pre- Proposal Conference

Solicitation for Internet Services for the American Embassy, Amman - Jordan

Date: March 27, 2012

Time: 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM Subject: Solicitation number S-JO100-12-Q-0008 Contracting office: Matthew S. Ferry Contracting Officer’s Representative: Sean M. Kelley 3 representatives from 2 companies attended the pre-proposal conference Matthew Ferry the Contracting officer starts the meeting and welcomed the insurance companies’ representatives and introduced all Embassy participants to them. All representatives introduced themselves.

Mahmoud Itani/Contracting Assistant briefed the representatives about the Internet Services solicitation; he went through the solicitation’s sections and indicated the following points:

· The due date for accepting the proposals will be at the close of business day of April 25, 2012 at 16:00 Jordan local time. No proposals will be accepted after this time and date.

· This contract will be a fixed price contract.

· After this meeting only written questions will be accepted.

· The due date for receiving written questions is close of business of Sunday, April 1, 2012.

· All answers will be available on the website by Thursday, April 5, 2012.

The following are the answers for the questions that we received during the pre-proposal conference and until the close of business of Sunday, 1st of April 2012:

Questions:

Q1.

Is there an incumbent on this contract?

A.

Yes, International Data Exchange, LLC. (Cyberia Jordan).

Q2.

Is this contract open to foreign competitors (i.e. Jordan-based ISPs or IT firms)?

A.

This contract is open for any that can provide the services required in Section 1 and licensed to do business in Jordan.

Q3.

To install internet access in the Embassy, will the contractor be required to have security clearances?

A.

No.

Q4.

Will the 24/7 Technical Support service be required to have English and Arabic speaking customer service representatives?

A.

Yes.

Q5.

Please elaborate on the network performance metric of 99% uptime per quarter - what are the exact parameters for this? (i.e. will any level of network connectivity be considered "up") A.

Good question. I expect a 10Mb/s connection to perform at 10Mb/s with sub 120 ms latency to the US to be the standard. If speed or latency drops below that level for extended periods, I would not consider that to be performing with specs and will require a repair.

Q6.

When do you anticipate posting the solicitation with the exact requirements?

A.

The solicitation is already posted in March 25, 2012.

Q7.

Can you explain what the bandwidth requirements are for the internet requirement?

A.

We require a 10 Mb/s symmetrical low-latency (sub 120 ms to the US) connection, and will perform connectivity tests to the U.S.

Q8.

Does your requirement include (significant) infrastructure deployment (laying outside plant fiber cable to the embassy, install inside plant cables in the Embassy, installing data-connection-outlets in the Embassy, installing routers, etc) or is it just about getting connected to the world wide web through a subscription with an ISP?

A.

We already have the internal infrastructure in place. The bid must include providing connectivity to the Embassy demarcation room, with any necessary equipment to connect to our Ethernet equipment.