US Embassy Antananarivo VPN and Internet Connection Primary

The U.S. Embassy Antananarivo would like to invite vendors to provide price quote and service offering information for 60Mbps, 75Mbps and 100Mbps of the ISP, symmetrical internet connection, allowing upload and download data transfers simultaneously at the same speed.

VNET Specifications and Requirements is as follows:

This internet circuit shall be high-end, professional grade service that differs from the residential, dial up service. The Embassy requires dedicated (not shared or bundled) Internet Bandwidth, 24/7, “always-on” with unlimited usage. Fiber optic, terrestrial connectivity is preferred. The local ISP access circuit to the Post must meet the following specifications/requirements for connectivity.

1. A /28 subnet static Public IP addresses for VPN equipment, network mask, and default gateway IP address.


2. ISP interface connectors: Gigabit interface or LC fiber connector (MM-multimode)


3. ISP availability: "Always on"


4. ISP connection: IPs must NOT repeat and NOT use Network Address Translation (NAT).


5. ISP must permit all IP protocols (including but not limited to ICMP, UDP, TCP, and IPSEC) to transit without filters or proxies. Unfiltered access to the Internet is required without ISP firewall blocking or stateful inspection.


6. ISP must permit installation of Customer VPN encryption devices on circuit.


7. ISP must permit ping and trace route traffic from 169.252.0.0/16 and 169.253.0.0/16 to the ISP connection.


8. High quality performance, the following parameters in a vendor’s Service Level Agreement (SLA) should be used:
   
   
   
   1. Packet Loss
      
   2. Availability of 99.9%.
   
   
   3. Bandwidth falling below the required bandwidth on the international circuit, or latency higher than 300 milliseconds to Washington DC (169.252.0.0/16 and 169.253.0.0/16) would be considered below the service standard.
   
   
   
   


9. Must not have ZTE, Huawei, Xiaomi and affiliated branded products in use on the internet connection. Post may not enter contract (or extend or renew contract) with an entity that uses above mentioned equipment, system, or service that uses covered telecommunications equipment or services as a substantial or essential component of any system, or as critical technology as part of any system.


10. Internet Service Provider (ISP) must provide detailed network topology map that shows all possible paths ISP use for the internet traffic between ISP hub in Antananarivo and the ISP hub in United States of America (USA).


11. ISP must have redundancy or any other alternate paths in the Internet backbone between Madagascar and USA.


12. Devices must be rack mountable in a standard commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) rack.


13. The awarded ISP must provide online web access data traffic analysis graphs capabilities. Graphs must be updated on, at minimum, an hourly basis. Graphs must retain traffic history behavior for at least one year.

Period of performance (POP): 7/01/2025 – 6/30/2026.

Costing information for twelve months in the following format:

a. Non-recurring costs (NRC), if any, in U.S. dollars, and in Ariary;

b. Monthly costs in U.S. dollars and in Ariary

c. Fees and or costs to cancel contract if the POP has not ended.

d. All the applicable taxes and or fees (e.g., VAT, & import migration fee.)

Accordingly, interested prospective offerors are invited to submit their quotation to rajaonarh@state.gov no later than April 29, 2025 at 4:00 PM local time.