The City of Boston is committed to closing the digital divide for its students—and to laying the foundation to meet the growing broadband needs of the 21st century. The City plans to accomplish this by connecting all City schools to BoNet, the fiber-based network operated by the City.
This City has issued an RFP for scalable dark fiber backbone infrastructure—primarily to upgrade broadband connectivity to Boston Public Schools (BPS) facilities. The City may also seek to bolster the existing BoNet infrastructure and provide future connectivity to Boston Housing Authority (BHA) facilities and critical public safety sites. Additionally, this expansion will help the City expand and improve public safety services across the City and expand opportunities to deploy “Wicked Free Wi-Fi” to a broader geography.
The City’s goal is to leverage as much existing infrastructure from private carriers by seeking an IRU of dark fiber to connect approximately 145 sites throughout the entire city. The term of the IRU shall be for 20 years, with two 5-year renewal terms.
The complete RFP and its accompanying documents can be accessed on the City’s Procurement Page.
Responses to the RFP are due June 6, 2017