Radio, television, communication, telecommunication and related equipment

Tender description

A communications service provider is required to provide ESB with a reliable and high availability cellular M2M communications service to enable end-to-end communications between components of the ESB Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) system and a range of implementation and enduring services throughout the life of the agreed contractual term. Certain terms used in the description above are defined in the PQQ. Communications Service – The provision of reliable communications within the bounds of agreed SLAs between ESB IT systems and electricity meter communications interfaces. The services will ensure that only authenticated devices can utilise the communications service, and that all communications across the network are encrypted. The communications service will meet the coverage, reliability and performance SLAs, scalable to support up to 750 000 Smart Electricity Meters (SEMs) installed in the Republic of Ireland. This will include provision of SIMs direct to device manufacturers to enable communication using private APN(s), supporting as a minimum 2G technology to each connected SEM, with the ability to support 3G and 4G technologies. Note: The smart electricity meters to be purchased by ESB will incorporate either 2G, 2G+3G, 2G+4G or 2G+3G+4G communications functionality. Implementation services – the provision of services to design the communications interfaces, integrate with the required ESB systems and deploy the solution. This will include the APNs and SIMs for both test and production usage, provision of mobile communications at the meter manufacturing site for factory testing purposes, assurance of communications for integration with SEMs for operation on the network and integration with ESB IT systems at 2 different sites in Dublin. In addition, the communications service provider will provide services to support system testing and commissioning. Enduring support services – services to provide an incident management system, testing services and reporting services. The handling of incidents raised by ESB will be prioritised and will allow escalation of incidents that are business critical, recurring or are not being progressed. Testing services encompasses provision network services to AMI test environments for testing separated from the production environment, support of installation and testing activities and assurance of end devices for communication on the network through the lifetime of the system. Reporting services are required to enable monitoring of communications performance, accounting, network issues and security incidents; diagnosis of communications issues. Each key service outlined above will be described in more detail in the PQQ. Certain terms used in this description above are defined in the PQQ. Please note the contract will be awarded on the basis of the Most Economically Advantageous Tender (MEAT).