East Africa - East Africa Enterprise Solutions "Technical"

Proposal Submission Place:SEACOM, Ltd., suchita.ramphal@seacom.com, francis.ndegwa@seacom.com AND andre.haupt@seacom.comThe Grantee invites submission of qualifications and proposal data (collectively referred to as the "Proposal") from interested U.S. firms that are qualified on the basis of experience and capability to develop a feasibility study to evaluate the enterprise market for fiber telecommunications services in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Rwanda.PROJECT BACKGROUND AND GRANTEEThe U.S. Trade and Development Agency ("USTDA") is providing a grant to SEACOM, Ltd. ("SEACOM") to fund a feasibility study to evaluate the enterprise market for fiber telecommunications services in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Rwanda. SEACOM launched a business strategy in South Africa in 2015 and Kenya in 2016 to

expand its service offering beyond its primary offering of submarine and terrestrial cable communications into direct-to-enterprise network solutions for African business markets. SEACOM's business development team has led the push into new markets to increase and diversify revenue streams. Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda are being prioritized based on SEACOM's existing wholesale services operations in these territories, indicating SEACOM already understands the complex technical and regulatory landscape in these markets.SEACOM, Ltd. is a private company located in Mauritius that owns and operates a submarine communications cable system, with an extensive network of submarine and terrestrial, high-speed fiber serving the east and west coasts of Africa with onward reach to and from Europe, India and Asia. The SEACOM cable network, which went operational in 2009, was an ambitious infrastructure project, confronting several hurdles related to financing, open access, and construction. Nevertheless, SEACOM was successful in overcoming these hurdles, and by building and operating the network, SEACOM dramatically expanded cost-effective access to reliable, high-speed internet services in Southern and Eastern Africa. SEACOM, a major pan-African service provider offers connectivity, data, voice and cloud services to enterprise customers in South Africa and Kenya, demonstrating its experience in the types of products and services that SEACOM seeks to offer. SEACOM's fibre and wireless data services provides businesses with access to high-speed, reliable and cost-effective Internet and VPN services via SEACOM's award winning, global high-speed data network. The network provides low latency access as well as highly scalable connectivity to businesses of any size and location.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF STUDY COMPONENTSThe proposed Study would assess fiber and enterprise services market conditions and gaps in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Tanzania. While some countries, such as South Africa, are well-served by market research companies and have an abundance of easily available data on internet connectivity and penetration, fiber network maps, and other relevant information, in general, East African countries, do not have the same degree of data availability.The specific objectives of the Study are (i) to help SEACOM determine whether or not there is a valid business case for introducing or expanding Layer 3 enterprise services in the target countries, and (ii) if such a business case exists, to develop a business plan for introducing and/or expanding such services in the target countries. SEACOM currently provides wholesale services in the target countries and enterprise services in Kenya. The outcome of such a Study would help SEACOM refocus its efforts in Kenya and determine whether there is a potential market in the other three target countries for its enterprise services.The U.S. firm selected will be paid in U.S. dollars from a $702,935 grant to the Grantee from the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA).A detailed Request for Proposals (RFP), which includes requirements for the Proposal, the Terms of Reference, and portions of a background desk study report are available from USTDA, at 1101 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1100, Arlington, VA 22209-3901. To request the RFP in PDF format, please go to: http://www.ustda.gov/business-opportunities/request-proposal-formRequests for a mailed hardcopy version of the RFP may also be faxed to the IRC, USTDA at 703-875-4009. In the fax, please include your firm's name, contact person, address, and telephone number. Some firms have found that RFP materials sent by U.S. mail do not reach them in time for preparation of an adequate response. Firms that want USTDA to use an overnight delivery service should include the name of the delivery service and your firm's account number in the request for the RFP. Firms that want to send a courier to USTDA to retrieve the RFP should allow one hour after faxing the request to USTDA before scheduling a pick-up. Please note that no telephone requests for the RFP will be honored. Please check your internal fax verification receipt. Because of the large number of RFP requests, USTDA cannot respond to requests for fax verification. Requests for RFPs received before 4:00 PM will be mailed the same day. Requests received after 4:00 PM will be mailed the following day. Please check with your courier and/or mail room before calling USTDA.Only U.S. firms and individuals may bid on this USTDA financed activity. Interested firms, their subcontractors and employees of all participants must qualify under USTDA's nationality requirements as of the due date for submission of qualifications and proposals and, if selected to carry out the USTDA-financed activity, must continue to meet such requirements throughout the duration of the USTDA-financed activity. All goods and services to be provided by the selected firm shall have their nationality, source and origin in the U.S. or host country. The U.S. firm may use subcontractors from the host country for up to 20 percent of the USTDA grant amount. Details of USTDA's nationality requirements and mandatory contract clauses are also included in the RFP.Interested U.S. firms should submit their Proposal in English directly to the Grantee via email at suchita.ramphal@seacom.com; francis.ndegwa@seacom.com AND andre.haupt@seacom.com by 00:00H EAT (17:00H EST), December 6, 2019. Evaluation criteria for the Proposal are included in the RFP. Price will not be a factor in contractor selection, and therefore, cost proposals should NOT be submitted. The Grantee reserves the right to reject any and/or all Proposals. The Grantee also reserves the right to contract with the selected firm for subsequent work related to the project. The Grantee is not bound to pay for any costs associated with the preparation and submission of Proposals.