Telecommunications services

Tender description

Research and Education (R&E) activity takes place on an ever increasing global scale with international collaborations involving researchers and experiments spanning continents and sharing unique infrastructures. Research and Education Networks have been built around the world to link up R&E institutions (universities, scientific instruments, research centres, etc.) and provide network solutions that have been designed to meet the capacity and network performance parameters required to facilitate R&E activities. These networks are typically built on a national basis by National Research and Education Network organisations (NRENs) and then connected internationally often by a regional body (usually owned by NRENs). Inter-regional connectivity is typically established on a collaborative basis by the Regional Research and Education Networks of the corresponding world regions. As a continuation of the long-established collaboration between the R&E networking communities of Europe and Latin America, the 2 regions wish to provide high-speed data transmission between a major PoP in Europe and a major PoP in Brazil. The service should be provided using a Direct Submarine Cable System (EU-LA DSCS) linking both PoPs. This EU-LA DSCS can be a non-protected submarine optical fibre system that must be deployed directly between both continents, i.e. with at least 1 pair of physically continuous submarine fibres which do not land in any third country. This project is called BELLA, Building Europe Link to Latin America, and is funded by the European Commission and members of the BELLA Consortium. A major element of the project is the procurement to acquire a long-term right-of-use on an EU-LA DSCS that aligns with the funding profile and provides capacity that will scale over the lifetime of the cable to keep pace with the demands of the R&E community. The procurement is being carried out on behalf of the BELLA Consortium by GÉANT and CLARA. A Procurement Team has been formed to resource the procurement and it is envisaged that the supplier contract resulting from the procurement will be signed by GEANT Ltd and CLARA on behalf of the BELLA Consortium and of their respective NREN communities.