Canada - Measuring Broadband Canada Project (Phase 3) – Fixed Wireless. (ISED204131)

Description

INNOVATION, SCIENCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (ISED) CANADA ISED-204131 ADVANCE CONTRACT AWARD NOTICE (ACAN) An Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN) allows departments and agencies to post a notice, for no less than fifteen calendar days, indicating to the supplier community that it intends to award a good, service or construction contract to a pre-identified contractor. If no other supplier submits, during the fifteen-calendar day posting period, a statement of capabilities that meet the requirements set out in the ACAN, the competitive requirements of the government's contracting policy have been met. Following notification to suppliers not successful in demonstrating that their statement of capabilities meets the requirements set out in the ACAN, the contract may then be awarded using the Treasury Board's electronic bidding authorities. If other potential suppliers submit statements of capabilities during the fifteen-calendar day posting period, and meet the requirements set out in the ACAN, the department or agency must proceed to a full tendering process on either the government's electronic tendering service or through traditional means, in order to award the contract. Contracting Officer Name:  Leonard Irani Telephone Number:  613-447-7050 E-mail:  Leonard.irani@ised-isde.gc.ca DESCRIPTIVE TITLE: Measuring Broadband Canada Project (Phase 3) – Fixed Wireless. BACKGROUND: According to CRTC Telecom Regulatory policy 2016-496 , Canadians living in urban, rural and remote areas, should be able to access fixed broadband Internet speeds of at least 50 megabits per second (Mbps) download and 10 Mbps upload. Telecom Decision CRTC 2018-241 , and Telecom Regulatory Policy CRTC 2019-42 further established the expected quality of service (QoS) levels related to round-trip latency, packet loss and jitter. To help attain this universal service objective, both CRTC and ISED established Broadband Funds that will support high-speed internet infrastructure improvement projects across the country. The commission will monitor progress towards achieving the universal service objective by continuing to collaborate with partners and by expanding its data collection process. The CRTC published two reports in the past as part of the Measuring Broadband Canada (MBC) project which was a collaborative effort with a number of Canadian Internet service providers (ISPs) and SamKnows, a UK based company specializing in broadband measurements. This project focused specifically on the performance of fixed wired broadband Internet services provided to Canadian homes. Building on these studies, there is a need to assess the validity of ISP reported speed data for 50/10 (50 Mbps download and 10Mbps upload) and above delivered via fixed wireless access (FWA) technology. SCOPE OF WORK: The contractor is responsible for producing a report on the state of fixed wireless broadband Internet performance delivered to Canadian homes. This Project will focus on the following: Fixed wireless broadband performance of ISPs with reported speed claims of “up to” 50/10 (50 Mbps download, 10Mbps upload) and above. If the reported download speed is less than 50Mbps AND/OR the reported upload speed is less than 10Mbps in a particular area, these speed tiers will not be included in this study. Performance analysis by metric, time, location, service plan, distance to service towers, and technology. The contractor is required to have previous working experience with telecommunication regulators in the measurement of broadband performance TASKS: The Contractor must undertake the following tasks: Work with ISED and CRTC (Project stakeholders) to identify the wireless service providers(WSP) to be tested in Canada based on their number of fixed wireless broadband Internet customers and/or revenue and/or total coverage of their geographical footprint and/or with a geographical footprint that is of interest for ISED and CRTC. There would be approximately 30 areas/WSP combinations to evaluate. Work with the Project stakeholders to identify the service tiers of these service providers to be measured. Develop and deliver an information workshop for wireless service providers to provide all relevant information regarding the project. Work with the Project stakeholders to identify the frequency of data collection (how many times a day, peak and off-peak hours, weekdays and weekends) Recruit the volunteers for participating in the study by developing and implementing a recruitment campaign. Ensure that the collected data has a statistically valid sample size and representation. Before the project start, explain plans on how to address the privacy and security requirements at different phases of the contract term such as during data collection, sharing, access, transfer, storage and deletion. Deploy the broadband monitoring products (hardware) to the selected volunteers’ premises as needed, and help the volunteers install and configure these products. Provide product support and customer services to all project stakeholders. Retrieve and reallocate products should a change occur in participation of volunteers. Provide the ability to collect and export relevant information from volunteers who are not selected as eligible participants for the hardware based study, including but not limited to: The volunteer’s anonymous geolocation information to be presented using WGS84 or NAD83, decimal format to 0.01 resolution, their current Internet subscription status (ISP, package speed and cost), whether or not they requested a service of 50/10 Mbps or greater, from which ISP(s), and the outcome if subscription was not achieved. (i.e. cost, physical or technical limitation, etc.) their actual speeds based on a provided web based speed test. Develop project plan and schedule for the measurement. Collect, process and maintain the performance data by using unbiased testing servers. Provide access to participating stakeholders to view, filter data and generate data charts with associated access levels and throughout the contracting period. Provide data filtering capabilities by date, time range, technology, location, performance metric, service provider, service tier from a web portal. Provide the ability to download the charts and related data from the web portal. Ensure a data collection process that allows for a determination of the following: Analysis and reporting of data consistent with previous MBC reports wherever applicable; such as “peak vs off-peak download speed as a percentage of maximum advertised speed” by ISP and/or by region, “download/upload speed as a percentage of advertised speed” by ISP and/or by package. Percentage of time that actual download speeds are meeting or exceeding subscribed download speeds. Percentage of the time that download speeds are 50Mbps and above Percentage of the time that upload speeds are 10Mbps and above Repeat above analysis by province and territory and for all provinces and territories as required Repeat above analysis by granular targeted areas if the number of participants enables it (optional) Identification of correlation between the distance to the service tower and performance results. The contractor will provide the geolocation information of hardware boxes that are distributed to Canadian homes. Geolocation data to be presented using WGS84 or NAD83, decimal format to 0.01 resolution. Geolocation data to exclude any user related information except the identifier of the hardware box and the service provider. After ISED has used this information to calculate the distance with the respective service tower, this distance data will be provided to the contractor, who will incorporate it into the overall analysis. QoS parameters as defined in CRTC Telecom Regulatory policy 2019-42 such latency, jitter and packet loss in addition to download and upload speeds Identification of correlation between major weather events and performance results where applicable Identification of correlation between seasonal foliage and performance results where applicable Provide access for downloading raw measurement data from a server for volunteers and project stakeholders and in accordance with their data access rights throughout the project. Analyze the collected data and produce a final report for the CRTC to publish. Ensure that all communications directly interfacing with the public to be available in both official languages DELIVERABLES AND TIMELINES: The Contractor will: The contract will be undertaken from the date that the contract is awarded and completed in a 12 month period. The contractor will: Develop and deliver to the Project Stakeholders, the documentation detailing the measuring methodology, metrics, plan and schedule. Set up the testing nodes framework. Establish a panel of volunteers participating in the measurement. Provide a data access portal for Project stakeholders. Verify and validate the measuring data samples. Produce the reports. The reports will be delivered in MS Word format in English delivered in a manner consistent with CRTC practices [1] allowing appropriate departments (such as Web for updating the numbers on the website) to easily update the impacted areas. Graphs, charts will be provided in French as well as English. [1] Please see Appendices 1 and 2. All deliverables must satisfy the following criteria: Technology-neutral to all fixed wireless technologies. Capable of a variety of broadband performance metrics, such as but not limited to download and upload speeds, latency, packet loss and jitter. Compatible with all consumer devices within a home environment, such as but not limited to home computers, tablets, smartphones, set-top boxes, routers, switches, modems etc. Capable of cross traffic detection and using reasonable means to eliminate cross traffics during the measurement. Capable of measuring on a 24/7 cycle and with no user intervention. The CRTC and ISED will have rights to publish any findings or derivatives produced from the raw data and/or web portal. CONSTRAINTS Measurement data must not be influenced by local network traffic (i.e. current network usage by users within the customer premises) Measurement data must not be influenced by on-premises network configuration or performance. Measurement must not rely upon end user computing equipment (i.e. tests should not be executed using the end user’s computer or hand-held device) Measurement must be automatic and/or externally triggered. It must not require active, ongoing interaction by the user to perform measurement. Measurement should be transparent and undetectable to users. Measurement should occur across a sufficient variety of times throughout the day and night so as to produce statistically relevant time-based data. The above constraints do not apply to the web-based speed tests provided to volunteers deemed to be ineligible for the hardware based study SECURITY: Not Applicable  IDENTIFICATION OF CONTRACTOR: Name of Contractor: SamKnows  Operating as: SamKnows Address: 94 New Bond Street Postal CODE: W1S 1SJ, United Kingdom  REASON FOR AWARDING CONTRACT TO THIS CONTRACTOR: Our research indicates that, SamKnows is the only supplier currently offering a comprehensive solution including hardware testing of broadband performance for national scope targeted users, including management of testing agents, schedules and users. Should the requirement be competed, timelines associated with hardware development would be significant and would hinder capacity to get the broadband performance results in a timely manner. In addition, the costs associated with hardware development are unknown and could be quite significant, whereas the SamKnows costs are comparable to those of previous contracts with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission The estimated value of the contract is $1,5 million excluding applicable taxes, with the work to take place from date of contract award to September 31, 2023. APPLICABLE TRADE AGREEMENTS AND APPLICABLE LIMITED TENDERING REASONS: Section 6(d) of the Government Contracts Regulations is being invoked in this procurement as only one person or firm is believed capable of performing the contract. There is Trade Agreements applicable to this requirement. CLOSING DATE AND TIME FOR WRITTEN SUPPLIER RESPONSES CHALLENGING THIS REQUIREMENT IS June 21,2022: 14 :00 , EASTERN STANDARDTIME, You are hereby notified that the government intends to solicit a bid and negotiate with the firm identified above. If you wish to submit a written response showing that you are capable of meeting this requirement, it must be done not later than the closing date and time. As it is intended to proceed in a timely manner, responses received after the closing date will not be considered. The Crown reserves the right not to open this procurement to competition. Responses received on or before the closing date will be considered solely for the purpose of deciding whether or not to conduct a competitive procurement. Information provided will be used by the Crown for technical evaluation purposes only and is not to be construed as a competitive solicitation. Your written response must provide sufficient evidence (e.g. specifications, technical data, drawings, or any other proof) that clearly demonstrates that your product or service is capable of fulfilling this requirement. Suppliers that have submitted a response will be notified in writing of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada's decision to continue with the non-competitive procurement or to compete the requirement. Should you have any questions concerning this requirement, contact the contracting officer identified above. The Industry file number, the contracting officer's name and the closing date of the ACAN must appear on the outside of the envelope in block letters or, in the case of a facsimile transmission, on the covering page.

Opportunity closing date

25 July 2022

Value of contract

to be confirmed