Internet Service Providers

Item Description:

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) was created by the United Nations General Assembly on 11 December 1946, to provide emergency food and healthcare to children in countries that had been devastated by World War II. In 1950, UNICEF’s mandate was extended to address the long-term needs of children and women in developing countries everywhere. In 1953 it became a permanent part of the United Nations System, and the words “international” and “emergency” were dropped from the organization’s name, making it simply the United Nations Children’s Fund, retaining the original acronym, “UNICEF”.

Request for Proposal

With UNICEF shifting away from distributed and refocusing more on centralized cloud-based computing as it relates to VISION and move to Microsoft Office 365; encompassing Exchange/Outlook messaging system and online/real time collaboration through SharePoint and MS Skype for Business alongside unified communication system covering audio/video conferencing; the need to put in-place a robust, reliable and secure means of communication cannot be over-emphasized. This is also necessary for business continuity plan in case of emergency, as well as global access to the office network resources by staff members on the move, external visitors (Staff from other UNICEF offices, consultants, interns etc.).

The current VSAT (satellite)-based system in-place, has latency-based delay that is highly unsuitable for real-time/online Applications such as MS Outlook, VISION, MS Skype for Business, Skype, Video and Audio conferencing. An end-to-end fiber optics-based connectivity option today stands out to be the only means that can guarantee seamless users’ experience when it comes to online/real-time and cloud-based computing.

The purpose of this assignment is to install and commission suitable fiber-optics Internet connectivity in following UNICEF Offices locations in Nigeria: Lagos-Office, Lagos-Warehouse, Kaduna, Bauchi, Enugu, AbujaBCP, Sokoto, Katsina, Maiduguri, Akure and Port Harcourt. Bandwidth requirement is in Annex-1 attached.

Specific Tasks Involved

1. ISP is responsible for putting in place all necessary hardware and software needed to have the fibre-optics-based Internet link up and running with acceptable minimal interruption.
2. Metropolitan Network to be in place in each city to serve the office and the BCP sites
3. ISP to ensure:
   • 24 x 7 hours connectivity with a minimum assurance of 99% availability
   • Total packet lost not exceeding 5%
   • The ping time between local devices and those in Headquarters in New York (USA) shall be between 100 and 200ms. Values higher than this are not acceptable. For a test purpose, a ping shall be performed between a connected device in each location with any known server in NYHQ.
   • Online traffic monitoring tool should be made available by the Vendor with access rights to UNICEF or in the absence of the same, the Vendor shall provide a traffic report every two weeks to UNICEF the content of which will be provided at the time of LTA(s) signature.
   • 24 x 7 help desk support available to UNICEF by phone or on-site support, depending on the severity of the problem with one dedicated staff to be allocated by the Vendor.
   • A Service Level Agreement (SLA) guaranteed minimum 99% Internet service availability for Optic Fiber. The SLA should provide name of contact person per layer.
   • Provide cost of internet connection with Bandwidth listed in the attached annex I.
   • The ISP should have at least two lines of the international backbone. (International backbones diagram/routing should be attached).
   • /29 Network to be allocated each site with 6 usable static publicly routable Live IP addresses per block
   • Fiber optic is preferred for the last-mile connectivity to each UNICEF office. In locations where the ISP’s nearest fiber optics point-of-presence (PoP) is reasonably far away from a UNICEF office location, other suitable last-mile connection might be considered after due consultation between UNICEF and ISP.
4. The ISP must be able to provide UNICEF sustained and dedicated link throughput
5. Upon commissioning, an SLA (Service Level Agreement) shall be signed by both the ISP and UNICEF showing the level of commitment expected of each party.

RFP 9153931 ISP providers.pdf
RFP 9153931 – TOR Fiber ISP Annex A.docx
RFP 9153931 – Annex B – Locations.docx