Invitation of Expression of Interest

INVITATION OF EXPRESSION OF INTEREST

FOR SHORTLISTING OF

TELECOM SERVICE PROVIDERS/INFRASTRUCTURE PROVIDERS CATEGORY-II,

LICENSED/REGISTERED WITH DoT,

FOR support from uso fund

FOR

AUGMENTATION, CREATION AND MANAGEMENT OF INTRA-DISTRICT SDHQ – DHQ OFC NETWORK FOR TRANSPORT OF RURAL / REMOTE AREA TRAFFIC ON

BANDWIDTH SHARING BASIS

IN

THE SERVICE AREA OF ASSAM

Under

INDIAN TELEGRAPH (AMENDMENT) RULES, 2006

No. 30-170-2/2006-USF

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS & IT

DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

UNIVERSAL SERVICE OBLIGATION FUND (BB UNIT)

ROOM NO. 1311, SANCHAR BHAWAN, 20 ASHOKA ROAD,

NEW DELHI -110 001, INDIA

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS & IT

DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

UNIVERSAL SERVICE OBLIGATION FUND (BB UNIT)

SANCHAR BHAWAN, 20 ASHOKA ROAD,

NEW DELHI -110 001, INDIA

EOI Notice No. F. No. 30-170-2/2006-USF Dated:08-07-2009

Invitation of Expression of Interest (EoI) from Telecom Service Providers/Infrastructure Providers Category-II, Licensed / Registered with DoT, for Support from USO Fund for Augmentation, Creation and Management of Intra-District SDHQ – DHQ OFC Network for Transport of Rural / Remote Area Traffic on Bandwidth Sharing Basis in the Service Area of Assam

It is proposed to launch a scheme by USO Fund to provide subsidy support for strengthening the general rural infrastructure by way of optical fiber network augmentation, creation and management of intra-district SDHQ-DHQ OFC Network in the Service Area of Assam for the development of telecommunication facilities and make available the network capacity to other service providers on sharing basis at the prescribed rates on the terms & conditions specified in the tender. The scheme has already been discussed with the prospective bidders on 01.06.09, the Outline of the Scheme and Draft Tender Document are available on the DoT Website.

The scheme has been structured such as to first short-list the bidders amongst the eligible Telecom Service Providers (BSOs/UASLs/CMSPs/NLDOs) and Infrastructure Providers-II, to participate in the Tender to roll out the proposed scheme in the Service Area of Assam.

Administrator - USO Fund, on behalf of the President of India, invites “Expression of Interest (EoI)” from Telecom Service Providers/Infrastructure Providers Category-II, for the above said scheme. The detailed document, inviting Expression of Interest (EoI), is available on the Department of Telecommunications website www.dot.gov.in (under ‘what’s New’). No charges shall be payable by the applicants towards the cost of the EoI. The applicants are not required to submit any earnest money while submitting the EoI. In case of any query, please send an E-mail at the address .

The applicant must be Licensed Telecom Service Providers for ASSAM with valid license from DoT for UASL/BSO/CMTS/NLDO, or registered as Infrastructure Provider Category-II (IP-II) with Department of Telecommunications and should meet the Technical and Financial criteria enumerated in Clause No. 5.3.

From the EoIs received, Administrator USO Fund would shortlist applicant companies, based on the eligibility criteria as per the EoI, which would be eligible to participate in the tender for the scheme as described above. The Administrator, USO Fund reserves the right to accept or reject any or all applications without assigning any reason thereof.

The EoI is to be submitted in Room No. 1311, Sanchar Bhawan, New Delhi and the last date of submission is 10.08.2009 by 1600 Hrs.

DDG (BB), USOF

Notes:

1.  Though adequate care has been taken while preparing this document, the Applicant shall satisfy himself that the document is complete in all respects.

2.  Intimation of any discrepancy shall be given to this office by e-mail at the address immediately. If no intimation is received from any Applicant within ten (10) days from the date of issue of this document, it shall be considered that the issued document is complete in all respects and has been received by the Applicant.

3.  While this Expression of Interest(EoI) has been prepared in good faith, USOF does not make any representation or warranty, express or implied, or accept any responsibility or liability, whatsoever, in respect of any statements or omissions herein, or the accuracy, completeness or reliability of information contained herein, and shall incur no liability under any law, statute, rules or regulations as to the accuracy, reliability or completeness of this request, even if any loss or damage is caused by any act or omission on its part.

4. The details of the scheme, envisaged by USOF Administration, for Support from USO Fund for Augmentation, Creation and Management of Intra-district SDHQ– DHQ OFC Network for Transport of Rural / Remote Area Traffic on Bandwidth Sharing Basis in the Service Area of Assam, as given in the EoI document, are indicative and are under finalization. Administrator, USOF reserves the right to change the terms and conditions of the scheme.

1  BACKGROUND

1.1 The Universal Service Support Policy came into force from April 1, 2002. The Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) was established under the Indian Telegraph Act as amended by Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Act, 2003. The fundamental objective of the USOF is to provide access to telecommunication services to people in the rural and remote areas at affordable and reasonable prices. The financial resources for meeting this Universal Service Obligation (USO) are realized and collected by way of Universal Service Levy (USL), which is a specified percentage of the revenue earned by Telecom Service Providers.

The activities, presently supported by the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF), include provision of Village Public Telephones (VPTs), Rural Community Phones (RCPs), Replacement of MARR based VPTs, installation of Individual Rural Household Direct Exchange Lines (RDELs),creation of infrastructure for provision of mobile services to rural and remote areas of the country, provision of wireline broadband connectivity to villages, in rural and remote areas for development of telecom facilities.

1.2 The USOF Administration (hereinafter referred to as ‘USOFA’) is considering extending the subsidy support for Augmentation, Creation and Management of Intra-District SDHQ – DHQ OFC Network for Transport of Rural / Remote Area Traffic on Band-width Sharing Basis in the Service Area of Assam (hereinafter referred to as ‘Scheme’).

1.3 USOFA would shortlist the companies (hereinafter referred to as "Short-listed bidder”) based on the eligibility criteria as per this Expression of Interest (EoI) from companies (hereinafter referred to as "Applicant”), who would be eligible to participate in the bid for the scheme.

2.  USOF APPROACH TO THE SCHEME

The USOF approach is to utilize spare fibre and multiplex capacity where available in the network (it’s own or others) as well as utilize existing premises (instead of spending on new buildings/ shelters etc. everywhere on the planned route) and upgrade the existing capacity as required, install new OFC routes to SDHQ still not having OFC connectivity. In this approach the duplication of physical resources including laying of optical fibre cables in parallel to already laid OFC is avoided as far as possible. It is in the Bidder’s own interest to make all possible efforts to utilize the existing network(s) and avoid unproductive duplication of existing OFC- based telecom infrastructure.

The present scheme has already been discussed with the prospective bidders on 1.6.09 and the Outline and Draft Tender Document have been posted on the DoT Website.

3.  DESCRIPTION AND SCOPE OF WORK FOR THE PROPOSED SCHEME

The augmented and created OFC networks shall provide OFC connectivity to all SDHQ nodes via underground OFC cable as prescribed in Technical Conditions of the Tender. All SDHQ nodes, en-route location nodes and additional location nodes shall be connected on physical OFC Ring Route(s) with the DHQ node ensuring the cable route diversity. All intra-district rings should be interconnected. At all the SDHQ/DHQ/Enroute/Additional location nodes Optical Add Drop Multiplex TDM/IP or Ethernet based transport equipment with optical line output conforming to ITU-T Standard optical signals will be installed. These node equipments will be equipped with modules required for electrical multiplexing/demultiplexing and dropping / inserting the digital traffic conforming to ITU-T rates and standards, along with all other necessary common modules required for clocking, regeneration, control and monitoring facilities.

The node equipment on the SDHQ-DHQ OFC Rings will be configured for Self-healing ring protection. Not more than 6 – 8 nodes are to be connected on a single OFC Ring to allow for adequate drop/insert interface capacity for rural/remote traffic at the node after allowing for protection capacity overhead. Each ring capacity for transport of telecom traffic including integrated voice, data and video signals shall be at least 2.5 Gbps, expandable to 10 Gbps. Each node shall have minimum aggregate Add/Drop capacity of 155 Mbps equipped with granularity up to 2 Mbps. The augmented and created network shall have capability to efficiently transport various protocols including TDM, IP, Frame Relay, ATM etc.

The indicative list of Districts, sub-district headquarters (SDHQ) is given in Annexure-VI, showing “Districts and Sub-districts and other locations of Assam that are to be inter-connected.

Network Bandwidth sharing: Use of augmented and created Bandwidth in OFC network transport

“The high capacity bandwidth created under the scheme shall be shared with other service providers at prescribed rates and as per the terms and conditions specified in the Tender.”

Responsibilities of Successful Bidder of the scheme

The Successful Bidder shall be responsible for procurement, installation, testing, commissioning, and management of the OFC transport network and shall build, operate, own and manage the transport network as per the scheme.

The successful bidder shall select the best suited technology, compliant with relevant ITU-T/IEEE/IETF/IEC/TEC standards, as applicable, to meet the deliverables of the scheme provided in the Tender Document.

Associated activities

All related works, including electrical and civil works, but not limited to, providing adequate installation space (i.e. buildings/ rooms/ shelters for housing all equipment),and other facilities, such as Electrical power connection, AC/DC power supply, air-conditioning equipment, fire fighting equipment, earthing, lightning protection etc., as well as preparation of the related drawings, taking all necessary permissions/approvals such as Right of Way (ROW)’ from concerned central/ State/local authorities shall be the responsibility of the successful bidder.

Period of Agreement

The successful bidder shall be responsible for the commissioning and management of the above infrastructure for a minimum period of seven years from the date of signing of the Agreement with the USP as specified in the Tender Document.

Roll out plan

The successful bidder shall complete the whole project, as per terms and conditions, within the specified time period of 18 months from the date of the signing of the agreement as indicated in the Tender Document.

Subsidy Support

The total subsidy amount at the Representative Rate’, arrived at through the single stage bidding process, shall be disbursed in a phased manner against the commissioning and roll out of OFC Network in the districts, subject to the terms and conditions, specified in the Financial conditions prescribed in the Tender Document.

4. SALIENT FEATURES OF THE PROPOSED SCHEME

·  Only the short-listed bidders from the EoIs received, shall be eligible to bid for the Tender of the proposed scheme.

·  Bid shall be invited for the Service Area of Assam.

·  The Tender Document will indicate technical and other specifications, and a list of Districts, sub-district headquarters (SDHQ) and other locations for providing OF connectivity in ring configuration and creation of 2.5 Gbps bandwidth capacity in each ring under the proposed scheme.

·  USOF shall indicate a single benchmark subsidy rate for the Service Area of Assam in the Tender Document. The Bidders shall quote a single rate of subsidy for the Service Area of Assam which shall be applicable for disbursement on percentage basis for various districts as mentioned in the Financial Bid Form of the Tender document.

·  The total subsidy amount at the Representative Rate’, arrived at through the single stage bidding process, shall be disbursed in a phased manner against the commissioning and roll out of OFC Network in the districts, subject to the terms and conditions, specified in the Financial conditions prescribed in the Tender Document.

·  Validation and acceptance of the augmented and created OFC transport network shall be carried out by TCIL, the Designated Monitoring Agency for the scheme, as nominated by USOFA in the Tender Document.

·  The created high-capacity bandwidth in the transport network shall be shared with other service providers at prescribed rates and as per the terms & conditions specified in the tender for providing telecom services to rural/remote areas.

5. INFORMATION AND INSTRUCTIONS TO THE APPLICANTS

5.1 USOFA invites Expression of Interest (EoI) from companies (hereinafter referred to as "Applicants") who have the necessary technical competence, experience and financial strength for augmentation, creation and management of similar OFC transport network, as described here. To submit an EoI, the Applicant should meet the eligibility criteria outlined in clause 5.3.

5.2 Eligible applicants shall be required to apply to participate in the EoI for short-listing. Only the short listed bidders shall be eligible to participate in the tender of the proposed Scheme.

5.3 Eligibility Criteria

5.3.1 The Applicant shall be a valid licensee of DoT for Unified Access Services Licensees (UASLs), Cellular Mobile Service Providers (CMSPs), Basic Service Operators (BSOs) for Assam Service Area, NLDOs or registered as an Infrastructure Provider Category-II (IP-II) with Department of Telecommunications, Government of India. The Applicant should furnish a copy of the relevant pages of License/valid registration certificate, issued by DoT, as documentary evidence in support of its eligibility.

5.3.2 The applicant shall have a minimum experience of installation, operation and management of 500 route-kilometers OF Cable network and 50 numbers of optical nodes (where each optical node is of at-least 155 Mbps/equivalent or higher capacity) during the last 5 years, from the date of the issuing of the EoI as per Annexure-1, duly certified by the Auditor. Applicants shall furnish documentary evidence in support of the experience in the form of completion certificate from the duly authorized owner of the network.

5.3.3 The Applicant must fulfill the following minimum financial eligibility requirements

Net Worth: Minimum net worth of Rs. 50 Crore (Rupees Fifty Crore only) as per the audited annual report of the last financial year.

·  Net Worth

= Subscribed and Paid-up Equity share capital