Cell_Phone_PPC_Minutes _Q A.docx

Chapter 4 - Solicitation Documents October 2004 March 12, 2015 U.S. Embassy, Freetown South Ridge, Hill Station

Minutes From Pre-Proposal Conference of March 11, 2015

Introduction

The Contracting Officer welcomed all attendees, introduced:

· IMO Jerry O’Neil

· IMS Rick Melton

· Sr. Comm. Tech Abraham Sengbe

Discussion of the Solicitation Package

· Contracting Officer displayed the solicitation package via digital projector and noted that the definitive version would be available online through FedBizOps.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

QUESTION 1: Under Section 1; III Pricing; A Standard Services; 4. International Roaming (for Base Year & all four Option Years), which countries and regions does the price per minute refer to, and how can quoters possibly narrow down a price for roaming minutes when the largest percentage of roaming fees is established by international partners, and there is such a radical difference of fees with each country, region and partner service provider. Example: Roaming fees for some Middle Eastern countries can run as high as $10.00/min. 1000 minutes at that rate could increase the grand total per contract year by as much as $10,000.

ANSWER 1: Contracting Officer and Requiring Office staff agree that there are too many variables in the general term of “International Roaming” without any further specification, and that a fair interpretation should be the mark-up charged by the contractor per minute of the average international roaming call on an intercontinental and worldwide basis.

QUESTION 2: Under Section 1; III Pricing; A Standard Services; 5. Internet Services; (for Base Year & all four Option Years), the unit of measurement for mobile phone data service in the solicitation is in KB (Kilobytes), whereas, due to the rapid improvement and expansion of data services and widespread use of Smart Phones, the industry standard for measurement is now in Gigs (Gigabytes), rather than Kilobytes. Can quoters enter prices per Gigabyte, rather than Kilobyte?

ANSWER 2: Yes, the pricing for III - A Standard Services; 5. Internet Services can be entered either per Gigabyte, or Kilobyte, and the appropriate conversion factor will be applied in factoring the totals and grand totals for all services.

Conclusion

The conference concluded and attendees were thanked for their presence and expression of interest in Embassy Freetown’s Contract for Mobile Telephone.Services. A short site visit to the telephone frame room took place, and the meeting was adjourned.

Sincerely,