1. Update to all potential bidders:

Please note to include any and all PUC Fees or other fees/taxes in your bid numbers.  The FCC WILL subsidy 85% of all fees/taxes provided they are included in the winning bid.  If they are not included in the bids, the FCC will NOT provide subsidy towards them which means that how those fees and taxes will be paid will need to be a discussion between the vendor and the site.  In addition the FCC is stating that the site should NOT be responsible for paying these taxes/fees as they were not included in the bid. 

2. Question:

Can you verify items numbered 1-22 on pages 13-18 on RPF #4 are identical to items numbered 1-22 on pages 13-18 on RPF #6?

Answer:

That is correct, they are identical.

3. Questions and Answers (Red):

1. It appears that to kick off the process we are to submit a "Notice of Interest". Is this correct? Where does one find the form or format for this notice?

This is not required.  Some vendors do in the form of an email stating their intent to bid but there is no form.

1. Under "Other Requirements" for site #2, Clackamas Community College, Oregon City Campus, it states "both campuses. Site will select winning bid that best meets their needs. Please define "both campuses".

On RFP#4 Pg19 this refers to sites 1 and 2: Clackamas CC Harmony Campus and Clackamas CC Oregon City Campus.

(From the CCC website, it appears there are three campuses, Harmony (site #1 in RFP 4), Wilsonville and Oregon City. #2 in RFP #4. Only one of these is in Oregon City).

1. Under "Network Access and Transport Specifications, #11, it is stated, "The data access and transport provider must be willing to agree to Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with financial penalties.......  What are the specific financial penalties for:
   • Service outages
   • Lack of availability of the contracted service capacity
   • Failure to meet quality of service specifications for transit delay, jitter and packet loss
   • Is there a sample SLA we can review?

This is completely up to the vendor to provide.  We don’t have a sample SLA but we specifically list all items (some you mentioned above) that we monitor and request the SLA to cover as well as the specifications for each.  If your connection is unable to meet one or any of those specifications please feel free to bid and clearly state what you are able to offer  as well as the financial penalties you are willing to incur should there be a breach of SLA.  Again, all vendors have their own version of this.  Failure to specifically meet each of the specified metrics will not necessarily preclude you from bidding, but can result in a loss of points during the review.  If what you are able to meet differs significantly from what we specify in the RFP Document we do withhold the right to reject your bid.

1. Under "Network Access and Transport Specifications, #13, seperate pricing is requested for transport to NWAX and to the Internet. In the attachment under "Service Requested" it states,    1 Gbps network access and transport to OHN at NWAX. Please explain the bandwidth and other relevant specifications for Internet access which are in addition to access and transport to NWAX.

We request separate pricing for two different services:

1.        Transport of data via the OHN network at NWAX.  All service providers must have a presence at NWAX in order to pier with all other OHN members.  This transport must meet the SLA standards and quality assurances.

2.       Public internet access.  Although both connections generally utilize the public internet for transport most vendors charge an additional fee for public internet access.  We ask that you separate the two charges so that it is readily identifiable as to what your additional charges will be.  Please note that this connection does not need to meet the SLA requirements that OHN transport (above) does.

 Continued from above:

Question:

Thank you for your reply. It does raise one other question, however; following from your response to #2 below, it is an expectation bidders must provide transport from both the Harmony and Oregon City campuses and will a bidder be considered non-responsive if they can only provide transport from the Oregon City campus? Thanks

Some sites will request a single vendor bid for all their sites.  We try to accommodate this as best we can and we encourage vendors to bid for both sites whenever possible.  However, your bid will not be rejected if you only bid on a single site.

4. Question:

With regards to the evaluation criteria.  Are there any weighting factors applied such as "pricing" = 33% of the total of the six criteria, "Route Diversity" = 5%, etc? Thanks.

There are weight factors associated with each category but the exact percentage is kept private and only released to the reviewers.

5. Question:

1. It appears you are asking for 1 Gbps guaranteed bandwith from CCC to NWAX. This bandwidth could be shared with other traffic as long as a full 1 Gbps is always available to CCC, in which case the shared transport facility would necessarily require a bandwidth in excess of 1 Gbps, or this bandwidth could be provided via a 1 Gbps point-to-point connection from CCC to NWAX. Either of these topologies is desired vs. CCC having access to a 1 Gbps facility carrying shared traffic whereby CCC's available traffic capacity will necessarily be less than 1 Gbps. Is this correct?

Yes.  Also, you can utilize a shared connection as long as the bandwidth requested by the site is available to them and you can maintain the standards requested in the RFP#4 Access and Transport Requirments.

1. Please specify the required guaranteed bandwidth from CCC to the Internet and clarify whether the bandwidth for Internet connectivity is in addition to the 1 Gbps connection to NWAX. Also, please reaffirm the Internet bandwidth may be transported on a shared facitlity.

Please see the above update for CCC.  All public internet bandwidth is in addition to the requested OHN  Network transport to NWAX.  Internet bandwidth may be transported on a shared facility.

***IMPORTANT UPDATE FOR OHN RFP#4***

Please note the following changes for RFP#4:

Site:

Clackamas Community College Harmony Campus

New Service Request: 10 or 100 Mbps network access and transport to OHN at NWAX and 10 or 100 Mbps public internet access in addition to OHN transport.  Vendor must bid both bandwidths.

Clackamas Community College Oregon City Campus

The site has requested that they be removed from RFP#4.  Please do not submit any bids for this site.

5. Question:

Can you just verify the specific due dates for each RFP?  I had a question from one of my partner companies about the date. 

RFP 4 is due on 3/24/2010 by 4pm at the OHN Offices.

RFP 6 is due on 3/23/2010 by 4pm at the OHN Offices.

Just for completeness (I’m sure you already know this) the OHN Offices are located at:

2 Centerpointe Dr.

Suite 570

Lake Oswego, OR 97035