E-Rate #270001373

Ballard Community School District seeks internet access and fiber WAN services for its hub and four remote sites

Ballard Community School District is seeking E-Rate Category 1 internet access and fiber connectivity for its district hub and four remote sites. - Government buyer: Ballard Community School District, serving Huxley and other district locations in Story County, Iowa. - Services requested: - One bundled internet-access service for the district hub, with requested capacity from 1 to 10 Gbps; the Form 470 lists a capacity range up to 100 Gbps. - Four leased lit-fiber circuits or four dark-fiber connections to the remote sites: Ballard West Elementary, Ballard East Elementary, Ballard High School, and the Ballard Bus Garage. - Installation and initial configuration are requested for the connectivity services. - Lit fiber requirements: Fully managed, end-to-end transport with at least 1 Gbps symmetrical throughput, upgradeability under an SLA, and vendor-provided lighting electronics, maintenance, and network operations. - Dark fiber requirements: The District has equipment to light the fiber and will maintain that equipment. Proposals must separately price recurring lease fees, maintenance and operations, and any special construction; maintenance includes inspection, monitoring, outage response, repair or replacement, and customer notifications. - Special construction: If needed, provide itemized costs for network construction, design and engineering, and project management. Fiber must be operational by the RFP's stated construction deadline. - Term options: Internet access pricing is requested for 1-, 3-, and 5-year terms. Fiber pricing is requested for 12-, 36-, 60-, and 120-month terms. - Proposal requirements: Identify service type, any bundled eligible firewall, ineligible charges, availability and fees for at least 32 public IPv4 addresses, turn-up testing, applicable taxes and fees, and E-Rate discounted billing using the SPI method. Proposals must comply with FCC Lowest Corresponding Price rules. - OEMs and named entities: No OEM or service provider is specified as a required supplier. The notice names Huawei, ZTE, Hytera, and Dahua among examples of covered entities whose equipment and services are prohibited; it also names Hangzhou, Pacific Network Corp., its wholly owned subsidiary ComNet (USA) LLC, and China Unicom (Americas) Operations Limited in the covered-entity discussion. These are not identified as approved bidders or requested products. - Part numbers: None specified.

Description

Ballard Community School District is soliciting Category 1 broadband proposals for bundled Internet access to its district hub and leased lit or dark fiber services connecting four remote sites to the hub. The RFP requests bundled Internet access from 1 Gbps to 10 Gbps, and managed leased lit fiber with at least 1 Gbps symmetrical throughput, with specified contract-term pricing options. Dark fiber proposals and special construction pricing are also requested; any special construction must be completed and operational by May 30, 2027. Proposals are due by email to the Form 470 contact at 9:00 a.m. Central time on October 29, 2026, and must meet the stated FCC pricing and covered-equipment requirements.

View original listing