The Superintendent recommends the awarding of the voice (telephone) PRI circuit 3-year contract to low bid respondent Comcast of Norcross, GA in the amount of $389 per month per circuit.

Initial capacity demand will require 2 circuits for an initial monthly cost of $778/month before discount.

For the first year only of the contract, we will receive a 20% e-rate funded discount, making our final initial monthly cost $622.40/month.

PRI voice circuits are required to provide dial tone ("phone lines") for VOIP phone service being rolled out to the district. One PRI voice circuit can accommodate 23-24 simultaneous phone calls.

For the 2017-2018 fiscal year only, PRI voice circuits can be partially funded by federal e-rate funds. In accordance with e-rate guidelines that also meet board purchasing guidelines, an RFP was posted and 4 vendors responded.

Low bid respondent Comcast met the terms of the RFP and has a good reputation in the industry for this service. They are not adversely listed on the sam.gov database.

The number of PRI circuits purchased will be based on demand/need. Currently we only need one single PRI circuit to run the PDC and RMS combined. We anticipate being able to add one more school (WES) before that single PRI circuit may start to experience capacity issues.

We are also bringing two additional schools online (AES and SES) in the very near future, so will be starting this contract with two PRI circuits to handle all 5 facilities. 

As we bring additional facilities online with VOIP, we will monitor our PRI circuit usage/capacity, and add additional circuits when warranted to ensure dial tone ("phone line") availability.

A single PRI circuit costs $389 per month, before e-rate discounts are applied. We will receive a 20% e-rate funded discount, making our monthly out of pocket costs for the 2017-2018 year $311.20 per month for a single PRI circuit. 

In years 2 and 3 of the contract, e-rate will no longer fund voice services. Our monthly out of pocket will be the full $389 per single circuit per month.

With the e-rate discount and starting at 2 PRI circuits, our initial cost will be $622.40 per month.

Long term forecast for the duration of this contract is a total capacity required of 4 circuits, for an eventual monthly cost of $1556/month, with no discount applied or available.

Initially: $622.40 per month out of the district telecommunications budget with e-rate discount applied.

Long term: $1556 per month out of the district telecommunications budget with no e-rate discount available.