Section 1: Introduction Manteca Unified School District, hereafter referred to as MUSD, is requesting proposals for leased lit fiber and leased dark fiber services for our wide-area network(WAN). Service is expected to originate at the MUSD District's hub site and be delivered to the eligible service location at 550 Carnegie Street, Manteca, CA, 95337. Implementation of the new service is planned to begin in December 2, 2024 with an estimated completion date of June 30, 2025. Section 2: Service Requests 1. MUSD is seeking three (3) bids. Respondents may bid on one, all, or any combination of options. See Section 3 for the requirements of each solution. a. The first option for service is a fully managed, leased, lit fiber solution. b. The second option for service is a leased dark fiber solution that includes fiber maintenance as part of the monthly lease cost. c. The third item is for Category 1 network equipment to place leased dark fiber solutions into service. d. The new circuit MUST interface with the current service providers routing for MUSD network infrastructure, currently provided by Astound Business Solutions. 2. Network Design and Construction Routes a. MUSD will consider traditional network designs (such as hub and spoke) or alternative proposals. MUSD's stated decision criteria (outlined in the RFP) will be used to determine if an award is made. MUSD has, in accordance with E-rate guidelines, rated the cost of service as the highest weighted factor in its selection process b. Due to current and future bandwidth needs, respondents are encouraged to provide a dedicated infrastructure to MUSD. The fiber designs should be private and utilized only by MUSD. There should be no other aggregation points or third-party equipment between sites. c. The modulating equipment at each site is dedicated to MUSD and no other customer. If this is not possible, then the design should limit the use of shared infrastructure as much as possible. d. Respondents should clearly illustrate the proposed network design and construction routes. e. MUSD is not advocating or mandating any preconceived network design or construction route and leaves this decision up to the Vendor to present their best solution while recognizing the cited termination locations. 3. Special Construction a. In E-rate terminology, special construction refers to the upfront, nonrecurring costs associated with the installation of new fiber to or between eligible entities. i. Special construction and service eligibility for reimbursement has changed, starting the funding year 2016. See the Federal Communications Commission E-rate modernization order 2 (WC Docket No. 13-184) (https://www.fcc.gov/document/fccreleases-order-modernizing-e-rate-21st-century-connectivity) for more information. b. Special construction charges eligible for Category One consist of three components: i. construction of network facilities ii. design and engineering iii. project management c. If no new fiber is being installed, then any installation costs are considered standard non-recurring costs (NRC). i. For leased lit fiber solutions requiring special construction, this means that the costs associated with building the fiber are considered special construction, and the costs associated with the equipment required to activate the service are a standard NRC. ii. For leased
