Oxfordshire County Council (OCC), the Contracting Authority, is seeking an innovative private sector partner to provide broadband infrastructure through long term arrangements (the OCC Contract) and separate frameworks for Participating Bodies (the Framework Agreement).
The partner will be required to provide both BDUK & Ofcom defined Superfast broadband with minimum speeds of 24Mbps and basic broadband with minimum speeds of 2Mbps. The Contracting Authority requires the partner to design, implement, operate and maintain this wholesale broadband infrastructure in order to provide wholesale broadband services to retail service providers, which in turn, would be able to provide services to business and residential consumers, including public sector organisations.
The provision of the wholesale broadband infrastructure will be targeted at those geographical areas (e.g. rural areas) of Oxfordshire where the market is failing to provide wholesale broadband infrastructure (termed White areas and more fully defined in section VI.3). The partner will therefore be required to implement wholesale broadband infrastructure in those areas of Oxfordshire where there is no market presence now or expected over the next three years. This will require a comprehensive, and flexible, prioritisation process allowing OCC, during the lifetime of the project, to adjust the priority of locations across the county in order to maximise the coverage and efficiency of the programme.
In addition, OCC requires that a number of OCC specified sites that are not sufficiently addressed through the provision of BDUK & Ofcom defined Superfast broadband are provided with alternative infrastructure to facilitate site specific broadband infrastructure.
The requirements have been grouped into the following lots:
Lot 1(a):
Provision of open access infrastructure to facilitate BDUK & Ofcom defined Superfast broadband and basic broadband access to Oxfordshire. The infrastructure will cover the White areas, as defined by the European Commission, providing 90 % coverage to BDUK & Ofcom defined Superfast speeds and the remaining 10 % to basic broadband speeds by December 2015.
The procurement will include a comprehensive, and flexible, prioritisation process allowing OCC, during the lifetime of the project, to adjust the priority of locations across the county in order to maximise the coverage and efficiency of the programme.
Lot 1(b):
Provision of a single supplier framework to allow Participating Bodies to use additional funding to provide BDUK & Ofcom defined Superfast broadband into White areas not being addressed by OCC.
Lot 2 (a):
Provision of site specific broadband infrastructure to replace existing edge site network connectivity at OCC specified sites only. These sites will be identified during the OCC prioritisation process and will not have been sufficiently addressed through the delivery of Lot 1.
Lot 2 (b):
Provision of a single supplier framework to allow Participating Bodies to use additional funding to provide site specific broadband infrastructure to their sites not being addressed by OCC.
The Contracting Authority reserves the right to withdraw some of the Lots. Applicants may bid for one or both lots.
The Contracting Authority anticipates Lot 1(a) and Lot 2(a) to be contracted directly with OCC under two separate contracts. In addition separate Framework Agreements for Lot 1(b) and Lot 2(b) will be provided to enable call offs by Participating Bodies.
The direct contract between the partner and OCC for Lot 1(a) for the development of the wholesale broadband infrastructure will be supported through the provision of public funding through the Broadband Development UK (BDUK) programme and by OCC itself. The use of public funding in this way means that State Aid considerations will apply, including:
The specification of requirement is output based and technology neutral (favouring neither active nor passive infrastructure).
The partner will be expected to offer wholesale services to other retail service providers on a transparent and non-discriminatory basis for at least 7 years.
The contract will include a claw-back mechanism to reinvest any excess subsidy for further broadband roll out and include reporting obligations in order to account for sensitivity to take up rate, deployment cost and non broadband product revenue.
The contract will incorporate a benchmarking mechanism to ensure that prices offered by the supplier are controlled in line with the market.
Where possible, the partner will be expected to make use of existing infrastructure.
The National Regulatory Authority Ofcom will be consulted and updated as the project develops.
The partner will be expected to own and manage the risks associated with developing and operating a wholesale broadband network, including but not limited to take up risk.
Despite the use of public funding, the Contracting Authority anticipates that to meet its requirements the partner may also need to make a financial contribution and the Contracting Authority wishes to explore through this procurement the best way for this contribution to be made.
It is anticipated that the partner will need to deliver the services from March 2013. Further details are set out in the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (Information Document).
The scope of work encompassed under the Framework Agreements remains the same as the OCC Contracts. The Participating Bodies (i.e. the only bodies entitled to enter into call off contracts under the relevant Framework Agreement) are set out below:
The district councils and borough councils in Oxfordshire which are Oxford City Council, Cherwell District Council, South Oxfordshire District Council, Vale of White Horse District Council and West Oxfordshire District Council.
All parish councils in Oxfordshire (details of which can be found at: http://mycouncilpages.oxfordshire.gov.uk/mgParishCouncilDetails.aspx?LS=17&SLS=4&bcr=1.).
All maintained schools in Oxfordshire (including voluntary controlled and voluntary aided schools), free schools, academies, further education colleges (which are Oxford and Cherwell Valley College, Abingdon and Witney College, The Henley College), Oxford University and Oxford Brookes University.
Thames Valley Police, all NHS Bodies in Oxfordshire and all other contracting authorities under the public contracts regulations 2006.
The Contracting Authority is acting as a central purchasing body through which the Participating Bodies may wish to procure substantially similar services to those included in the OCC Contract under a separate framework agreement but without any obligation on the Participating Bodies to participate. Accordingly it is the intention that the Participating Bodies should be able to rely on this procurement to purchase such services without the need for any further procurement process.
The duration of an individual call-off contract under any Framework Agreement will not necessarily be limited to 4 years but will be governed by the subject matter of the call-off contract concerned. The form of the call-off contract will be agreed during the current procurement process subject to the right to make specific amendments in respect of an individual call-off.
It should also be noted that in the event of restructuring within local government and/or the wider public sector that this procurement and / or the OCC Contracts and any Framework Agreement awarded will pass to successor authorities to the Contracting Authority or any of the Participating Bodies that are public sector bodies, local authorities or state-funded schools.
No guarantee or warranty is given as to the nature or volume, if any, of the services or the number of calloffs, if any, under any Framework Agreement.
The Contracting Authority reserves the right to award only one of the OCC Contracts, and also reserves the right not to award any Framework Agreement or alternatively to award the OCC Contracts and any Framework Agreement at different stages of the procurement process.
Bidders should note that post contract award the scope of the contract may be subject to minor variations to cater for urgent and/or unforeseen additional works/services falling within the core requirements and identified elsewhere in this notice.
