·        Before the listed deadlines, all Questions and Bids must be submitted using the on-line IFCB system. Bids submitted before the bid deadline outside of this system will be disqualified. If the system is down before the deadline, please email your bid to info@crwconsulting.com or fax it to 918.445.0049. Bids or questions submitted in this fashion will be disqualified if the on-line system is active at the time of submission. The applicant reserves the right to request and obtain bids outside of the website system if the bid deadline has passed and zero or one bid is received (the intent for this is to follow USAC guidance on obtaining cost-effective bids).

·       For all requested services and/or products listed on this IFCB: proposals that include generic/encyclopedic price lists will be considered non-responsive and will be disqualified. SPAM and/or robotic responses will not be considered valid bid responses and will be disqualified from consideration.

·        Bidder must agree to participate in USF Program (AKA “E-rate”) for the corresponding funding year.

·        Please include the correct Service Provider Identification Number (SPIN) on your bid.

·        By submitting a bid, bidder certifies that the bidder does have a valid (non-red light status) SPIN for the E-rate program at the time of submission. Should the Applicant discover that the bidder is on red light status, or if the FCC classifies the bidder as on red-light status before work is performed and invoices are paid, the contract will be null and void and the applicant will have no payment obligations to the bidder.

·        Bidder is expected to provide the lowest corresponding price per E-rate rules.  See https://www.usac.org/e-rate/service-providers/step-2-responding-to-bids/lowest-corresponding-price/ for details.

·        Contracts must not prohibit SPIN changes.

·        Bidder must agree to provide the Applicant the choice of discount methods (SPI or BEAR).

·        Bidder will be automatically disqualified if the District determines that the bidding company has offered any employee of the District any individual gift of more than $20 or gifts totaling more than $50 within a 12 month period. This does not apply to the recent FCC exemptions of the Gift Rule for the COVID pandemic.

·        All contracts awarded will be contingent upon E-rate funding and final board approval.  The applicant may choose to do all or part of the project upon funding notification.

·        All applicable fees, surcharges, and taxes must be identified on the bid. E-rate rules require the applicants to evaluate the price of eligible goods and services that will be listed on the 471 application during the competitive bidding process. Fees and surcharges that apply but are not listed on the bid will be the responsibility of the bidding company, should their bid be awarded.

·        If there is a request for Internal Connections (Category Two) equipment, or Category One equipment listed on this IFCB the applicant will accept bids for functionally equivalent equipment.

·        LEASED WIDE AREA NETWORK CIRCUITS DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR: Any and all installation charges must be identified on your bid. If you submit a bid indicating that installation charges may apply without listing those charges, we will consider your bid incomplete and disqualify your bid.

·        LEASED WIDE AREA NETWORK CIRCUITS DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR: Vendors must bid all connections. If vendors submit a bid missing any connection, we will consider your bid incomplete and disqualify your bid.

·        LEASED WIDE AREA NETWORK CIRCUITS DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR: Bids submitted for services to incorrect addresses will be disqualified.

·        LEASED WIDE AREA NETWORK CIRCUITS DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR: Vendors must complete and return the excel document labeled Midland ISD RFP Pricing with their bid. Bids received without this excel file will be disqualified.

·        DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR C1 NETWORK EQUIPMENT: Service providers are required to bid the entire hardware project. Bids for individual components of the project, or bids that do not include all of the requested items for the project will be disqualified.

·        DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR C1 NETWORK EQUIPMENT: Vendors must complete and include the Midland ISD RFP Pricing excel document with their bid. Bids received without the excel document will be disqualified.

·        DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR C1 NETWORK EQUIPMENT:  The applicant will not accept bids from manufacturers of equipment deemed a national security threat by the Federal Communications Commission. The list of prohibited equipment is available here: https://www.fcc.gov/supplychain/coveredlist. Vendors that submit bids that include these manufacturers will have their bid disqualified.

·        DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR INTERNAL CONNECTIONS: The applicant will not accept bids from manufacturers of equipment deemed a national security threat by the Federal Communications Commission. The list of prohibited equipment is available here: https://www.fcc.gov/supplychain/coveredlist. Vendors that submit bids that include these manufacturers will have their bids disqualified.

·        DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR INTERNAL CONNECTIONS: Vendors must complete and include the C2 Cover Page with their bid. Bids received without the cover page will be disqualified.

·        DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR INTERNAL CONNECTIONS: It will be the bidder’s responsibility to provide documentation about the compatibility requirements listed in this IFCB. Vendors that submit bids without documentation demonstrating the required compatibility listed in this IFCB will have their bids disqualified, unless that vendor has bid the preferred make/model number listed.

·        DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR INTERNAL CONNECTIONS: Applicant will not accept bids for refurbished equipment. Any bids containing refurbished equipment will be disqualified.

·        DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR INTERNAL CONNECTIONS: Service providers are required to bid an entire Project A, Project B or Project C.  Bids for individual components of a single project, or bids that do not include all of the requested items for a single project will be disqualified.

·        DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR BMIC: Service providers are required to bid the entire maintenance project.  Bids for individual components of the project, or bids that do not include all of the requested items for the project will be disqualified.

·        DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR BMIC: Vendors must complete and include the C2 Cover Page with their bid. Bids received without the cover page will be disqualified.

·        DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR BMIC: Maintenance bids listing only an hourly rate and not a monthly or annual total will be disqualified.  Vendors quoting an hourly rate are required to also a) confirm that you have the ability/expertise to maintain all of the equipment listed and b) propose a number of hours at a particular rate monthly to properly maintain the entire list of equipment.  Bids that contain only hourly rates, without confirmation that the company can service the list of equipment, or without a monthly total will be disqualified.

Category 1

Leased Wide Area Network Circuits – 100 connections any delivery/technology type. Leased dark fiber bidders should bid two pair of fiber strands. Lit leased fiber bidders should bid 10 Gbps - 100 Gbps. Please see additional documentation available for download – Midland ISD RFP Specifications.

LEASED WIDE AREA NETWORK CIRCUITS DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR: Any and all installation charges must be identified on your bid. If you submit a bid indicating that installation charges may apply without listing those charges, we will consider your bid incomplete and disqualify your bid.

LEASED WIDE AREA NETWORK CIRCUITS DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR: Vendors must bid all connections. If vendors submit a bid missing any connection, we will consider your bid incomplete and disqualify your bid.

LEASED WIDE AREA NETWORK CIRCUITS DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR: Bids submitted for services to incorrect addresses will be disqualified.

LEASED WIDE AREA NETWORK CIRCUITS DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR: Vendors must complete and return the excel document labeled Midland ISD RFP Pricing with their bid. Bids received without this excel file will be disqualified.

Category 1 Network Equipment – The district needs 8 modules and 49 switches. Please see additional documentation available for download – Midland ISD RFP Specifications.

DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR C1 NETWORK EQUIPMENT: Service providers are required to bid the entire hardware project. Bids for individual components of the project, or bids that do not include all of the requested items for the project will be disqualified.

DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR C1 NETWORK EQUIPMENT: Vendors must complete and include the Midland ISD RFP Pricing excel document with their bid. Bids received without the excel document will be disqualified.

DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR C1 NETWORK EQUIPMENT:  The applicant will not accept bids from manufacturers of equipment deemed a national security threat by the Federal Communications Commission. The list of prohibited equipment is available here: https://www.fcc.gov/supplychain/coveredlist. Vendors that submit bids that include these manufacturers will have their bid disqualified.

Bus WIFI services – Please provide bids for services for 120 buses. The district is requesting service plans with a minimum 3Mb bandwidth and maximum 20Gb bandwidth.  Please include any installation, activation, configuration costs in your pricing.  Please include separate pricing for any CIPA/filtering costs. 

Category 2

Internal Connections

Switches should be 1u, no more than 17" deep. The switches should have 48 gigabit or faster ethernet ports, at least 8 of which (preferably 41-48) should be multigig capable.  The switches should have at least 4 uplink ports that are 40G capable or higher but support as low as 10G connectivity.  The switches should have at least two power supplies. The switches should be capable of providing POE+ with at least 1400W available for POE purposes.  The switches should be stackable for both power and data up to at least 8 switches per stack.  Switches should support SNMPv3, NetFlow, voice and data vlans on a single port, port or link aggregation capabilities, Rapid Spanning Tree.  Response should include all hardware, software, and licensing to enable the listed features. An example model in our current deployment would be Cisco C9200-48PXG. Bids for these projects should include physical installation and detailed inventory lists of where each item was installed. Configuration is required. Physical installation may require relocating patch panels in the rack to accommodate new switches.

Project A – 1 year licensing

NOTE: We are requesting switch licenses on this IFCB, which sometimes may be categorized as BMIC or MIBS by USAC (the BMIC and MIBS boxes on the 470 have been checked to cover this scenario).

Project B – 3 year licensing

NOTE: We are requesting switch licenses on this IFCB, which sometimes may be categorized as BMIC or MIBS by USAC (the BMIC and MIBS boxes on the 470 have been checked to cover this scenario).

Project C – 5 year licensing

NOTE: We are requesting switch licenses on this IFCB, which sometimes may be categorized as BMIC or MIBS by USAC (the BMIC and MIBS boxes on the 470 have been checked to cover this scenario).

COMPATIBILITY REQUIREMENT

All switches must be compatible and interoperable with existing Cisco switches and support Cisco Emergency Responder (CER) Functionality. 

DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR INTERNAL CONNECTIONS: The applicant will not accept bids from manufacturers of equipment deemed a national security threat by the Federal Communications Commission. The list of prohibited equipment is available here: https://www.fcc.gov/supplychain/coveredlist. Vendors that submit bids that include these manufacturers will have their bids disqualified.

DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR INTERNAL CONNECTIONS: Vendors must complete and include the C2 Cover Page with their bid. Bids received without the cover page will be disqualified.

DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR INTERNAL CONNECTIONS: It will be the bidder’s responsibility to provide documentation about the compatibility requirements listed in this IFCB. Vendors that submit bids without documentation demonstrating the required compatibility listed in this IFCB will have their bids disqualified, unless that vendor has bid the preferred make/model number listed.

DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR INTERNAL CONNECTIONS: Applicant will not accept bids for refurbished equipment. Any bids containing refurbished equipment will be disqualified.

DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR INTERNAL CONNECTIONS: Service providers are required to bid an entire Project A, Project B or Project C.  Bids for individual components of a single project, or bids that do not include all of the requested items for a single project will be disqualified.

Basic Maintenance of Internal Connections (BMIC)

The district would like manufacturer’s support pricing on the 49 switches requested under Category 1 Network Equipment. Please see additional documentation available for download – Midland ISD RFP Specifications.

DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR BMIC: Service providers are required to bid the entire maintenance project.  Bids for individual components of the project, or bids that do not include all of the requested items for the project will be disqualified.

DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR BMIC: Vendors must complete and include the C2 Cover Page with their bid. Bids received without the cover page will be disqualified.

DISQUALIFICATION FACTOR BMIC: Maintenance bids listing only an hourly rate and not a monthly or annual total will be disqualified.  Vendors quoting an hourly rate are required to also a) confirm that you have the ability/expertise to maintain all of the equipment listed and b) propose a number of hours at a particular rate monthly to properly maintain the entire list of equipment.  Bids that contain only hourly rates, without confirmation that the company can service the list of equipment, or without a monthly total will be disqualified.