RFP for Long Distance and WATS Telephone Service
and Calling Cards

Grant Wood Area Education Agency
4401 Sixth Street, SW.
Cedar Rapids, IA 52404-4499

The Grant Wood Area Education Agency is seeking bids for long distance telephone service. We have 3 agency centers in 2 different cities needing long distance service. We use an average of approximately 20,000 minutes of long distance time per month. We are seeking bids for a multi-year contract.

The long distance service we are seeking must include flat rate long distance toll charges for intralata, interlata, and interstate calls. This long distance service must be at least as good or better than the existing service.

In addition, the Grant Wood Area Education Agency currently has 6 WATS lines that service us. We are also seeking bids for this WATS service.

We are also seeking bids for long distance telephone calling cards. We are an intermediate education agency employing approximately 512 professional staff, about 260 of whom are assigned to outlying school districts. Many of these staff are given telephone calling cards in order to access parents and teachers outside the local calling area. These staff members are assigned to a variety of programs and services. These staff members, on average, use a total of 2500 to 3000 minutes per month. We are seeking a bid for a multi-year contract for telephone calling cards. We would prefer a flat long distance per minute rate for intralata, intrastate, and interstate calls.

Priorities:

1) Flat long distance per minute rate (any time, anywhere)
2) Multi-year contract
3) One bill, itemized by user

All quotations must address the following questions:

1) What will you offer as a per minute rate:

Flat rate (any time, anywhere)
for all calls ______________		 OR

 For each:

- intralata  ________
- intrastate ________
- interstate ________


2) Do you require a charge for card initiation? If so, what is the amount of that charge per card?

3) Do you require a charge for initiating a call with a calling card? If so, what is the amount of that charge?

4) Do you charge a different rate depending upon where the call originates? If so, please describe.

5) Are there any other charges associated with your calling cards? If so, please describe in detail.

We reserve the right to award the contract for long distance, WATS, and calling cards to a single vendor, or to split the services between multiple vendors.

There shall be no compensation made to companies that submit bids and are not awarded this order.

The successful vendor must be prepared to split the billing process. The vendor will be required to invoice the Schools and Libraries Division (SLD) of the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) for the discount portion of each bill, and to invoice Grant Wood Area Education Agency for the non-discount portion of each bill.

All quotations and questions should be addressed to:

Dr. Cliff Ehlinger, Executive Director
Grant Wood Area Education Agency
4401 Sixth Street, SW.
Cedar Rapids, IA 52404-4499
Telephone: 319-399-6730
FAX: 319-399-6457
E-Mail: cehlinger@aea10.k12.ia.us

All quotations must be received at the above address no later than 4:00 p.m.
Friday, December 6, 2002.

The following Board policies apply to the bidding process for Grant Wood AEA, and will be taken into consideration when determining award of contract:

The Agency shall purchase goods or services from vendors located in Area 10 unless the interests of the Agency are better served by purchasing from vendors located outside of the Area.

The Agency will attempt each year to purchase at least 10% of its goods and services, including construction, but not including utilities, from certified targeted small businesses located within Area 10.

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