San Francisco Affordable Housing Fiber Request for Information and Interest

1. PURPOSE

The Department of Technology (DT) is seeking to improve Internet access for residents of public and affordable housing with minimal cost to the City and its tax payers. To accomplish this, DT is exploring the possibility of a cooperative arrangement with one or more private partners. The first step in this process is a Request for Information and Interest (RFI) to solicit information and interest on options for extending the City’s fiber backbone to public and affordable housing sites. At the conclusion of the RFI, DT will analyze responses and provide recommendations for next steps. Depending on the approach selected, information gathered by this effort may inform a Request for Proposals to pursue a particular approach.

(DT is conducting a companion RFI on cooperative arrangements for expanding the "#SFWiFi Service in Public Spaces and Affordable Housing." Respondents are invited to respond to both.
https://sfgov.forms.fm/sfwifi-in-public-spaces-and...)

2. INTRODUCTION

The City wishes to provide free broadband service to residents of Affordable and Public Housing sites operated by the San Francisco Housing Authority (SFHA). (including Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program sites, HopeSF and Hope VI properties. See Attachment A for a list of buildings). To date, the City has offered free WiFi service through the Community Broadband Network; however, this network needs to be upgraded in order to meet the capacity and reliability needs of residents of these sites. In addition, the City wishes to support wired broadband service to residents of public housing. In order to achieve this goal, the City wishes to provide a robust, high capacity fiber optic backbone to connect these sites to the 200 Paul Avenue collocation site, where the network will connect to the Internet.

Currently, 12 of the 43 sites are on the City’s fiber network, while the remaining sites are connected via a wireless bridge. The City hopes to extend fiber directly to all Public Housing, RAD, HOPE SF and HOPE VI sites. DT believes a cooperative approach with one or more partners will expedite the deployment of a higher capacity, more robust backbone. DT is seeking information that clearly and plausibly articulates a cooperative arrangement between the City and a private partner.

Respondents to this RFI are encouraged to propose a backbone solution that would support not just the needs of #SFWiFi, but also gigabit speed broadband services for residents. At a minimum, the City is interested in providing #SFWiFi in public spaces in Public and Affordable Housing. The key features of the #SFWiFi user experience are that the service must:

• Support “best-effort” service with an average minimum throughput of 25Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream and the ability to upgrade over time;
• Not require authentication in order to provide best user experience and simple access;
• Broadcast the SSID Name #SFWiFi;
• Collect no personal information on users.

Ideally, the City would like to see residents of Public and Affordable Housing have access to gigabit services in their homes.

This “#SFWiFi in Public Spaces and Affordable Housing RFI” addresses the #SFWiFi service offering specifically and seeks suggestions for expanding in public spaces as well as affordable housing. Interested parties are encouraged to participate in both RFI’s.

3. RFI SUBMISSION CONDITIONS

Inquiry Only – No Contract
This RFI is an inquiry only. No contract or agreement will be entered into as a result of this process. The City cannot guarantee that the Project will advance to the public procurement stage or that any subsequent procurement, if there is one, will follow the approach described herein.

Changes to This RFI

The City may at any time, and at its sole discretion modify, amend, cancel and/or reissue this RFI by written addendum. If your organization wishes to be notified of any addendum please send primary point of contact’s: name, email address, and phone number to: TIS-Connectivity-BBCH@sfgov.org with the words “ San Francisco Affordable Housing Fiber RFI” in the email subject line.

If an addendum is issued prior to the date information is due, it will be made available on the following website: www.sfgov.org (.) If an addendum is issued after information has been received, it may, at the City’s discretion, be provided only to those proposers whose submissions may be impacted by such addendum.

Information Preparation Costs

The City shall not be liable for any costs incurred by the Respondent in the preparation, submission, presentation, or revision of its information, or for any aspect of the Respondent’s pre‐information submission activity. No Respondent shall be compensated for participating in this RFI, except under an agreement for performance of services signed by a City‐authorized representative and the Respondent.

Submittal of Confidential Information

Information submitted to the City in response to this RFI is subject to the California Public Records Act (“CRA”) and the City’s Sunshine Ordinance.

Respondents, however, may designate as confidential those portions of their submission that contain trade secrets or other proprietary data, which may be exempt from disclosure under CRA and Sunshine Ordinance.

To designate portions of the submission as confidential, Respondents must mark their submission, and any other information submitted, as follows:

1. Mark the checkbox: "This Submission includes trade secrets or other proprietary data." Include contact information for the person to be notified in the event of a CRA request or subpoena relating to the submission.

2. Mark any information to be restricted with the following: "Confidential: Use or disclosure of information or data contained on this response is subject to the restriction indicated earlier." Indiscriminate labeling of material as "Confidential" may be grounds for leaving a Submission unread or otherwise disregarding the information therein.

In the event that the City receives a response that has been marked as “Confidential,” the City will provide the Respondent with written notification of such requests to the address identified in the submission. The City will make the initial determination as to whether information marked "Confidential," will be disclosed pursuant to a request under CRA or the Sunshine Ordinance, valid subpoena, or other legal requirement. In the event the City agrees with Respondent that the material is not subject to public disclosure, the City will work with the Respondent so that the City can make the best case for non-disclosure. If these efforts are not successful and disclosure is required, the City will coordinate such disclosure with the Respondent. If this procedure is followed, Respondent shall have no remedy against the City with regard to disclosure of information released pursuant to CRA requests, valid subpoenas, or other legally required disclosures.

Ownership of Submitted Materials

All materials submitted in response to or in connection with this RFI shall become the property of the City. However, proprietary information marked as such will be protected as described above.

Rights of the City

The City reserves all rights at law and equity with respect to this RFI including, but not limited to, the unqualified right, at any time and in its sole discretion, to change or modify this RFI, to reject any and all information, to waive defects or irregularities in information received, to seek clarification of information, to request additional information, to request any or all Respondents to make a presentation, to undertake discussions and modifications with one or more Respondents, who, at any time, subsequent to the deadline for submissions to this RFI, may express an interest in the subject matter hereof. No Respondent shall have any rights against the City arising from the contents of this RFI, the receipt of information, or the incorporation in or rejection of information contained in any response or in any other document. The City makes no representations, warranties, or guarantees that the information contained herein, or in any addenda hereto, is accurate, complete, or timely or that such information accurately represents the conditions that would be encountered during the performance of any subsequent contract issued from a separate RFQ or RFP. The furnishing of such information by the City shall not create or be deemed to create any obligation or liability upon it for any reason whatsoever; and each Respondent, by submitting its information, expressly agrees that it has not relied upon the foregoing information, and that it shall not hold the City liable or responsible therefore in any manner whatsoever.

No Personal Liability

No City officer, agent or employee shall be charged personally with any liability by a Respondent or another or held liable to a Respondent or another under any term or provision of this RFI or any statements made herein or because of the submission or attempted submission of information or other response hereto or otherwise.

4. RFI SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Respondents shall submit their response in the format outlined below. Because this RFI is not part of a formal procurement; responses will be carefully reviewed but not evaluated or scored. The intent is to receive informed recommendations on possible approaches for meeting Project goals and identify options for overcoming Project challenges. The City may conduct interviews with Respondents to clarify responses and/or obtain more information; therefore, it is not necessary nor desired to provide exhaustive responses nor respond to each question.

The broad and varied nature of this inquiry make it unlikely that any single Respondent will be able to provide all the requested information, but Respondents are encouraged to answer every applicable section as completely as possible.