Proposal to increase the amount of an existing contract for the provision of a high-speed data circuit to the USA

This document concerns the proposal to increase the authorized amount of an existing contract for the provision of a high-speed data circuit for Wide Area Network (WAN) connectivity between CERN and the STARLIGHT Internet Exchange in Chicago, USA. The extension will be negotiated by CERN on behalf of 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 the University of Victoria (Canada), the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva and the European Union funded DataTAG project. The Finance Committee is invited to approve the increase of the authorized amount of the existing contract with T-SYSTEMS INTERNATIONAL (DE) for the provision of a high-speed data circuit for an additional amount of 1 731 106 euros (2 596 660 Swiss francs), bringing the total authorized limit to 5 821 000 Swiss francs, not subject to revision. The amount in Swiss francs has been calculated using the present rate of exchange. The increase will be entirely covered by the contributions of the EU DataTAG project, the DoE and NSF. The financial commitments of CERN are unchanged, i.e. 350 000 Swiss francs per year for a period of three years. The firm has indicated the following distribution by country of the contract value covered by this adjudication proposal: DE - 98%; US - 2%.