1. The United Nations Procurement Division, Regional Procurement Office (UNPD/RPO), hereby invites qualified vendors to submit their Expression of Interest (EOI) to participate in an upcoming solicitation for the provision of Internet Services to the United Nations Office of the Special Advisor to the Secretary-General on Burundi (OSASG-B) in Bujumbura, Burundi. 2. The UNPD/RPO, on behalf of OSASG-B seeks to engage professional / qualified, competent, licensed and accredited service provider(s) capable of providing internet connectivity and other internet services at the premises of OSASG-B HQ Bujumbura, Burundi. This requirement includes, but is not limited to, provision of Internet Services within Burundi. 3. The proposed term of Contract(s) shall be for an initial one (1) year period with an option to extend for one (1) additional year period (1+1), at the sole discretion of the UN, to extend under the same terms and conditions. Importantly this proposed extension is entirely subject to the continuation of UN mandate, availability of funds, and satisfactory performance of the service provider(s). 4. This minimum requirements will include the following: 4.1 Connectivity: a) OSASG-B requires qualified service providers that will make available information and quotations based on the capacity of 20/20 Mbps symmetrical (same up/download bandwidths) circuits; and b) The optional capacity upgrade from 20/20 Mbps to 40/40 MBPS symmetrical (same up/download bandwidths) circuits to be offered to the OSASG-B HQ, Bujumbura, if awarded. c) Please note that OSASG-B reserves the right to solely contract or upgrade the required circuits at any time. 4.2 Internet Addresses: a) The ISP should make available 10 real public IPv4 addresses to OSASG-B -B. b) The ISP shall elaborate in detail if it is possible to provide these as UK or US range public IP addresses as this is desirable. 4.3 Bandwidth Reliability and Performance a) The Service Provider must guarantee that full bandwidth capacity be maintained at all times to allow for maximum throughput (up and download). b) The bandwidth must be dedicated and not shared in any way and must provide unlimited international traffic volume and support VPN. c) Layer 3 reachability to internet must be on a separate path (exiting the ISP network) for each Link Subnet. d) The service provider must be willing to accept the conditions for connection availability and throughput. 4.4 Service Availability and Quality of Service a) The vendor must provide all technical and administrative support necessary to ensure that the established data links at the proposed speed remains available 24 hours a day, seven (7) days a week including a copy of the relevant Service Level Agreement (SLA) with respect to the guaranteed service, a guaranteed uptime of at least 99% and compensation value, or other compensatory measure, for each hour of service outage that causes SLA breach accumulated each month of less than 99% availability. 4.5 Service Level Agreement (SLA) a) Service Level Agreement must be an integral part of vendor’s proposal. b) As a minimum the vendor’s SLA must meet the criteria stipulated in the mandatory core requirements in the solicitation and must include details of network availability, latency, loss, jitter, actions on planned and unplanned down time etc. 4.6 Unlimited Data Throughput a) The vendor’s offer must be based on unlimited upload data throughput and unlimited download data throughput. 4.7 Announced service down time a) The Service Provider will be granted some hours of announced service outage for maintenance or upgrade of service. b) Announced outages must be announced to OSASG-B at least two (2) working days in advance and must be authorized and approved by OSASG-B -B. c) Maintenance must be scheduled at a time when there is least impact to OSASG-B clients, in prior consultation and agreement with OSASG-B. 4.8 Customer Service a) Technical support must be available on a 24/7/365 basis. b) This support must be offered without additional charge. c) Proposals must specify the type and level of customer support as well as the response time. d) Technical support and responses to all queries must be in English language. 5. The UN reserves the right to split the contract award amongst multiple service provider(s) and any resulting Contract(s) shall be non-exclusive. 6. Companies interested in being considered for shortlisting for receipt of the UNPD/RPO solicitation document are requested to submit a clearly written Expression of Interest therein specifying the company's profile, as per Vendor Response Form attached hereunder providing: 6.1 Address, contact person, active telephone numbers as well as functional e-mail contacts; 6.2 Company’s registration ID number (if already registered with UN) and UNGM registration number (www.ungm.org). 6.3 Company must be registered in UNGM atleast at Level 1 in order to be considered to participate in this UN solicitation. 6.4 Written confirmation of the company’s capability to provide these services OSASG-B within Burundi; and 6.5 Indicate commitment that if the solicitaion is issued, the company is ready to offer its services by the set bid close date and a copy of this included as part of the Technical Evaluation submission. 7. Note that companies that have previously submitted EOIs for similar services with the UN must re-submit full documentation as detailed above. 8. Please note, this is NOT an invitation for submission of bids/proposals. Its purpose is to identify companies that would be interested to participate in the solicitation when issued. 9. A detailed Scope of Work (SOW) with the technical requirement, estimates required as well as expected delivery dates will be provided within the UN's tender document which will be sent out to all qualified companies / vendors shortlisted for receipt of official UNPD/RPO solicitation. 10. The UNPD/RPO will examine the outcome of this request for EOI and will consider qualified firms including that have expressed their interest providing the required information as to their ability to fulfill UNPD/RPO’s requirement. No further details can be made available prior to the issuance of the tender as this stage is only to identify interested and qualifying vendors for this requirement. 11. The UNPD/RPO reserves the right to change or cancel the requirements at any time during the EOI and/or solicitation process. Thus, submitting a reply to this EOI does not automatically guarantee that your company will be considered for receipt of the solicitation when issued or award thereafter. The tender and any subsequent commitment to contract will be issued in accordance with UN rules and regulations. 12. Interested vendors must complete and submit page 5 (i.e. Vendor Response Form) of this EOI document indicating the EOI Number in the subject. At this stage, please do not submit any additonal information and no questions will be answered. The Expressions of Interest (EOI) may be submitted by mail or by using the emails provided clearly marked with the inscription “Expression of Interest – “Provision of Internet Services to the United Nations Office of the Special Advisor to the Secretary-General on Burundi (OSASG-B) in Bujumbura, Burundi”. UNPD Regional Procurement Office P.O. Box 710 UN Entebbe Support Base Old Entebbe Airport Road Entebbe, Uganda Attn: [email protected] 13. EOIs not addressing the above criteria to the satisfaction of UNPD/RPO shall not be considered for the solicitation to bid, if and when issued. UNPD/RPO reserves the right in selecting the invitees for the solicitation. 14. The Expressions of Interest (EOI) may be submitted only by e-mail no later than Close of Business 29 January 2018 to email address [email protected]. 15. If you have questions related to UN vendor registration, please follow the instructions below or contact [email protected] with a copy to [email protected]. 16. This request for Expressons of Interest (EOI) is issued subject to the conditons contained in the EOI introductory page on this website.