REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
WNCEDNET CONNECTIVITY
April 8, 2009
WNCEDNET is gathering information to develop an application for connectivity funding. WNCEDNET seeks to promote the deployment of broadband access connecting school and college sites in Jackson, Swain, Macon, Graham, Cherokee, and Clay counties as well as the Cherokee Indian Reservation.
We request information from private and public sector organizations that have or can develop the capability to assist in this effort.
The information should be sent to:
Leonard Winchester (828-341-5096)
Electronic transmissions are preferred: (LWINCHES@VERIZON.NET all lowercase). The information should be sent by April 30, 2009. RFIs that contain proprietary information should specifically identify the information considered proprietary. This RFI may or may not be followed by a request for proposal (RFP).
Background
WNCEDNET has or soon will complete school connectivity projects in the named areas connecting the K-12 schools in a star configuration to a district hub. We now seek to connect the college satellite sites to each main college campus and then connect the school district hubs to the colleges. The star configurations are dark fiber connections with the schools providing the electronics and management for those connections. The college satellite connections to the main college campuses will also be dark fiber connections. The interconnection of the district hubs with the college sites may or may not be dark fiber connections. Managed services for this connectivity will also be considered. For those familiar with our previous efforts this was previously referred to as a "Ring of Stars". This connectivity does not have to be a ring but must fulfill the functional interconnect equivalence.
Response
The desired response to this RFI will include the following information:
1. Describe the solution(s) you would recommend or offer to complete these connections (see list).
2. Describe the infrastructure used to support your solution to this connectivity project.
3. If managed services are proposed please describe your ability to scale bandwidth and the maximum scalability available.
4. Include a profile of your company including your organizational structure (LLC, C or S corporation, etc), partnering organizations, and experience.
5. Estimated total cost. This is not a binding quote.
6. Projected schedule. What is the estimated time required for deployment.
Site
List
Cherokee
Reservation - 33 Drowning Bear, Cherokee, NC
College
Satellite sites to
SCC
Webster campus -
SCC Future
Tri-County Machinist Program,
TCCC
Graham Center
Please note that the interconnect objective is to connect the seven school district hub sites
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