Proposal for the award of a contract for the provision of a high-speed data circuit to the USA

This document concerns the award of a contract for a high-speed data circuit for Wide Area Network (WAN) connectivity between CERN and the STARLIGHT Internet exchange in Chicago, USA. The contract will be negotiated on behalf of CERN and its partners, CNRS/IN2P3 (FR), the US Department of Energy (DoE) through the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), the US National Science Foundation (NSF), the Canadian high-energy physics community through Carleton University and the World Health Organisation in Geneva. Following a market survey carried out among 26 firms in nine Member States and three firms in the USA, a call for tenders (IT-2983/IT) was sent on 7 September 2001 to 17 firms in eight Member States. By the closing date, CERN had received 13 tenders from eight Member States. The Finance Committee is invited to agree to the negotiation, on behalf of CERN and its partners, of a contract for the provision of a high-speed data circuit to the USA, with KPNQWEST (NL), the lowest bidder (after realignment), for an initial period of one year for a total amount of 1 074 780 Swiss francs, not subject to revision and an option for two one-year extensions. The overall amount over the three year period shall not exceed 3 224 340 Swiss francs. CERN's contribution will not exceed 350 000 Swiss francs per year. The firm has indicated the following distribution by country of the contract value covered by this adjudication proposal: NL - 100%.