WirelessHotspot-SuungJoen Clarification for Bidders


1		CLARIFICATIONS ON THE RFP FOR WIRELESS HOTSPOT & SUUNGJOEN APP
2	SL.	QUERIES	Response
3		A. EMAIL QUERIES
4	A1	Bid submission date: Please clarify when will be the bid submission date since its is given 21st May,2019 in tender documents and addendum 1 but when we go through your website we found that bid submission is on 13th May,2019 at 2:00PM	Confirmed 21st May, 2019
5	A2	Bid-Security: when we go through your tender document we found that the bid-security for package 1 is Nu.20,000/- but we didn’t see the bid-security requirement for package 2, so if we are participating in package 2 only than we can submit the tender without bid-security right.	Package 2 is categorized as a software development consultancy and needs no bid security
6	A3	Technical evaluation: For technical evaluation you all have divided into three requirements, where one requirement is Nu.50 Million annual turnover, so I want to know how you all had divided the point for three requirements since its given 30% for three requirements. Is it 10% per requirement or different percentage for requirement a, b and c.	Bidders will have to comply and meet all three criteria (experience, turnover and project team).
7	A4	Please mention thefurther FRS for the Scope of the Suung-jeon app for better clarity of the project detailed scope.	The vendor shall assess the requirements that is suitable for Bhutanese Society. FRS shall be one of the documents the vendor needs to submit during work execution.
8	A5	We request to change the Milestones and Payment Schedules as vendor friendly since vendor have to procure all the software and harware licenses to build this app and need huge mobilization money to execute this project. This also involves renumeration of the manpower to be deployed during the preperation of project design, system study and development of the app. Suggested Payment Milestones for the services component % Payment of Sub-total or Services Provided During Implementation Phase	Since the assignment is based on PUPY-Per User Per Year cost model; the cost of development, operation and any related cost must be included in the prescribed cost model.
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10		B. QUERIES RECEIVED DURING PREBID - SUUNGJOEN APP
11	B1	Data Retention duration	Active data shall be retained for 6 months and thereafter the data shall be anonymoused and retained indefinitly.
12	B2	Commitment on Number of Users & Source Code Requirements	There shall be NO COMMITMENT on number of users. Regarding the Source Code, it shall be submitted to the government when the number of active users cross 100,000. However, the vendor is allowed to rebrand and venture into other commerical activities.
13	B3	Software Development License	The local vendor is required to have software development license. The local vendors without software development license can form a Joint Venture with one of the national software development companies.
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15		C. QUERIES RECEIVED DURING PREBID - WIRELESS HOTSPOT
16	C1	Definition of Wireless Hotspot:	The wireless hotspot was clarified to constitute whole (mesh) network built to meet the specified requirements of coverage and concurrent number of users.
17	C2	What is the bandwidth requirement per AP or per user?	The (minimum) bandwidth proposed must support 500 concurrent users in rural and 1000 in urban. Minimum bandwidth provisioned per user must be 512 Kbps.
18	C3	Are we asked to build a Wi-Fi network or any wireless network including cellular technologies?	So long as the users are able to latch/connect to hotspot network with intranet connectivity. Bidders can propose any technology of choice not limited to cellular technology, wireless and wimax. The backhaul shall not necessarily ride on Government Network.
19	C4	What are the Coverage area requirements? Outdoor, indoor or both? Only settlement areas or entire area within 1km or 250m?	Within the defined scope of the wireless hotspot, the coverage must be 1km and 250m radial irrespective of indoor or outdoor in rural and urban settings respectively.
20	C5	It will not be possible to achieve network availability of 99.9% since BPC who operates the backbone fiber network provides only 97% uptime. Thus, we suggest you to align network availability requirement with BPC’s commitment for fiber uptime.	The SLA defined in the tender must be understood as a requirement for Wireless hotspots.
21	C6	The duration of POC (21 days) is very short. At least 3 months is required if end-to-end POC has to be performed owing to many time-consuming activities especially manufacturing and delivery of hardware.	As discussed during the prebid meeting, POC is extended to a month period and the department will facilitate maximum of 4 servers with a condition that the provided servers will be bare minimum and As-It-Is.
22	C7	In addition, can the POC to be performed after the award of the contract? Having to perform POC before the work is awarded will definitely deter many prospective bidders from participating in the tender. This will lead to less competitive bidding and escalation of bid prices (both Capex and Opex)	POC is part of technical evaluation to assure that the proposed solution is functioning as proposed.
23	C8	If the procuring agency can by specifying well-known brands like Cisco, Huawei, Nokia, etc. and implement processes like PAT (Preliminary Acceptance Test) and FAT (Final Acceptance Test) and align the payment with these stages of project, the POC may not be necessary.	1. As mentioned in the tender document, technology to deploy hotspots are not defined. 2. As per the RGoB Procurement Rules and Regulations forbidden
24	C9	Is it possible to shortlist based on technical evaluation for POC, so that all the technically qualified bidders neednot do POC and incure unnecessary loss	It is not possible to shortlist based on technical evaluation as we have financial package unopened.
25	C10	Is the project going to be awarded to single or multiple operators?	The contract will be awarded to a single bidder.
26	C11	For how many years should the O&M costing be proposed?	For operation and maintenance, per year costs should be submitted for 5 years. However, O&M contract may be renewed annually.
27	C12	Please confirm how restriction on Intranet to Internet conversion and increasing the radius beyond 1km and 250m will be imposed? If the contract is awarded to a company other than two telcos and these two critical factors are manipulated, it is as good as providing free entry for 3rd operator at the expense of government. This will negatively impact the business of licensed ICT service providers who have already paid huge license fees and made large investment to build ICT infrastructure and discourage them from further investment. The lack of investment will ultimately lead to poor quality of ICT services that play critical role in the socio-economic development of the country.	Submission is duly noted
28	C13	How much Power back-up is required at the AP sites?	The power back-up must meet the SLA 99.9%.
29	C14	How are the Concurrent Users requirements defined? Is it 500/1000 users within 1km/250m radial area or 500/1000 per AP?	Concurrent users 500/1000 is per hotspot. Please refer C1 for definition of wireless hotspot
30	C15	Is it mandatory for the service to work in both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands? Since the contractor has to build a mesh network by interconnecting the APs using 5GHz as backhaul frequency to achieve required coverage area, providing service at both the frequencies is not feasible.	The bidder must plan access point channels for both frequency band. So as there is no or minimal interference.
31	C16	With regard to the coverage area, we understand that the 250m or 1000m radial coverage will be measured horizontally from the central locations like Gewog center	The coverage area will be measured horizontally from the central location.
32	C17	Some Gewogs have no fiber connectivity. Can alternative solution be proposed?	The bidders can propose alternate solution
33	C18	The RFP states that “The Department reserves the right to terminate the project/contract at any time”. We assume that the right to terminate is applicable to pre-contract period. Please confirm.	This was explained during the pre-bid meeting. The term "Bid cancellation" should rather be used instead of "termination" .
34	C19	In the 100 Urban centers, Please specify What:
35	C20	a. Near Dzong- Inside or Outside the Dzong	Hotspot should be deployed outside Dzong, catering to citizens residing near Dzong
36	C21	b. Hospital- Indoor coverage or Outside coverage	Both indoor and outdoor
37	C22	c. Parks: location of the parks.	If there are more than specified number of Parks in the Dzongkhag/Thromde, we shall choose the one with more number of users.
38	C23	d. Municipal: Location and whether its indoor or outdoor coverage.	Wireless hotspot for Municipal area can be deployed in Parks if there is any without such facility dedicated by this project. Second option shall be in the Town area facing the maximum number of residents/users and coverage should be both indoor and outdoor.
39	C24	e. Thromdes: Please specify the location and whether its indoor or outdoor coverage.	We are targeting recreational areas (eg:- parks, vegetable market) under the jurisdiction of thromde.
40	C25	According to the tender document, the total number of Gewogs and urban centers is 205 and 100 respectively. Also, corresponding concurrency per Gewog and urban center is 500 and 1000 respectively. Does this indicate the anticipated total concurrency to be (205x500)+(100x1000)=202,500?. Please confirm the total concurrency	Concurrency is defined per hotspot
41	C26	Is DITT looking for any monetization scenarios? Also, we have assumed that offload isn’t in scope. Please confirm.	Within the scope of the project mentioned in the tender document, wireless hotspot service does not have monetization scheme and technology choice is not limited
42	C27	We’re assuming that hardware (servers) needs to be proposed for this project and it will be in a locally redundant setup. Please confirm this understanding	Yes, we are expecting bidders to propose whatever it takes to provide specified service and meet SLA
43	C28	No. of hotspots government is planning in each of the 205 rural & 100 urban sites.	During the pre-bid meeting, the definition of 'hotspot' was defined. Please refer MoM for detail
44	C29	No. of APs at each hotspot ?	Bidders must decide to meet required coverage and users
45	C30	What is the power source at each hotspot location?	Power consumption will depend upon the type and number of equipment proposed. Bidders can propose how it will be managed. The costing should be included in the O&M.
46	C31	Fiber termination will be only at 1 point in every village or fiber connectivity will be made available at each hotspot?	Bidders should propose their own solution. Government will not provide any separate fiber for the wireless hotspot.
47	C32	Internet breakout will be local or from central location? Please confirm	The network will provide intranet only as mentioned in the tender document.
48	C33	Specs of the Outdoor APs required -> 2x2:2 Wave 2 or 4x4:4 Wave 2 ?	Given specifications are minimum. Bidders can propose their own.
49	C34	In the RFP document customer has asked for EAP-SIM as well, so are they going to do 3G/4G WiFi Data Offload as well? Please get the clarification on this point	It is kept as provision for the bidders to propose any technology and it was reiterated as technology neutral during the pre-bid meeting.
50	C35		Minimun hardware requirement specifications shall be proposed to meet the requirement of your solution. Since the vendor shall propose colud services, supplying of equipments or hardware to the procuring agency is not required.
51	C36	Storage space per user/user quota is not clear in the RFP document, because different vendor might quote with different per user quota space (e.g 20Mb/per user, 500MB/per user, 1GB/per user). kindly clarify how much storage space per user we should provision or consider.	Inclusive all (as you have mentioned here, storage space/user or bandwith you may need to make customer hapapy or run your app effeciently) you have to submit quotation user per year(user/annual). No other quotation
52	C37	Bandwidth to BTExchange point and to internet from NOC network/Server network is not clear, please clarify.
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55		D. QUERIES RECEIVED AFTER PREBID - SUUNGJOEN APP
56	D1	TECHNICAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS: clause 9 - Hardware Requirements	Minimun hardware requirement specifications shall be proposed to meet the requirement of your solution. Since the vendor shall propose colud services, supplying of equipments or hardware to the procuring agency is not required.
57	D2	Storage space per user/user quota is not clear in the RFP document, because different vendor might quote with different per user quota space (e.g 20Mb/per user, 500MB/per user, 1GB/per user). kindly clarify how much storage space per user we should provision or consider.	Inclusive all (as you have mentioned here, storage space/user or bandwith you may need to make customer hapapy or run your app effeciently) you have to submit quotation user per year(user/annual). No other quotation. The validity of user/annual must be AMC contract duration (5 years).
58	D3	Bandwidth to BTExchange point and to internet from NOC network/Server network is not clear, please clarify.
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61		E. QUERIES RECEIVED AFTER PREBID - WIRELESS HOTSPOT
62	E1	Yangkhor IT Solution: Is there any limit to number of access point requirement to establish 1km or 250m coverage	As informed during the pre-bid meeting, hotspot must be built to meet coverage of 1km or 250m radial. There is no mention of limitation of number of access point.
63	E2	Yangkhor IT Solution: The tender mentions on number of concurrent users, is this per access point?	The wireless hotspot was difined to constitute per location or site irrespective of number of access point. So the number of concurrent users are per hotpots which might constitute one access point or many.