The Highlands Board of Commissioners entertained three new RFP proposals for the opportunity to operate the town’s broadband network during a specially called Nov. 3 meeting.
The three new proposals came after three initial proposals were deemed invalid due to an error in the request for proposal issued by the town. The initial three proposals were denied and the RFP was posted again.
Three companies submitted proposals vying for the town’s business. These companies are:
• North Carolina Broadband Group
• Balsam West
• Hotwire
Commissioners will review each submission and schedule interviews for the three finalists in the next week.
Bids were open until Oct. 26 according to Highlands Mayor Patrick Taylor.
“The first set of bids that we had we could not count as responsive bids as the responders proposed a profit share, which the town could not do as the town was not authorized to sell broadband,” said Highlands IT Director Matt Shuler.
Shuler said the bids were rejected and requests for proposals were resubmitted.
“There were three responders,” Shuler said.
According to their proposals, each company offered to begin connecting customers quickly while building out the remaining part of the town’s broadband infrastructure and offering one GBPS service.
North Carolina Broadband Group would begin connecting customers within 90 days of the contract’s adoption, Shuler said and would provide an open network that anybody could connect to. NCBG would build out the remainder of the network in the fall of 2021. NCBG would provide Internet services up to 1 GBPS and would provide VoIP phone service to its customers. NCBG would offer the town $3.65 million over the next 25 years.
The second proposal, from Balsam West, would begin connecting customers in six months after contract adoption, Shuler said.
Balsam West offers a good faith effort to build out the remaining percentage of the network. Services include internet speed up to 1 GBPS for residential, voice services, transport and data center services. Balsam West would offer the town $5.39 million over the next 25 years.
The final group to submit a proposal was Hotwire, Shuler said.
Hotwire will begin connecting customers three months after connection of upstream bandwidth and would build-out underground within three years of customer commitment.
“They would get an incoming bandwidth first and then connect customers after three months,” Shuler said.
Services offered include internet up to 10 GBPS residential, voice, television, home automation and home security. Hotwire will offer the Town $10.2 million over 25 years.
“This is a preliminary meeting,” Taylor said. “We are seeking board advice and direction on how we proceed from here in moving toward selecting a company and create a contract.”
The mayor anticipates the discussion continuing during the next board of commissioners meetings and in additional specially-called meetings like the Nov. 3 special meeting.
The town borrowed $4.6 million over 15 years to build out its broadband infrastructure and will be liable for $6 million total including interest, said Finance Director Rebecca Shuler.
Commissioner Marc Hehn suggested the Town set up precautionary measures for the interview process, which are:
• Interview all of the proposers and rank them after we interview them.
• Bring financial documents to the interviews that will demonstrate they have the ability to do what they say they can do.
• Staff would need to define the insurance requirements and the performance bond.
• Find out if there is a provision in the town’s note with Truist (formerly BB&T) if it becomes taxable the interest rate changes.
• Find an anti-trust lawyer to make sure we’re not going to have a problem with the companies we have here already and brief us in executive session.
Commissioners agreed fundamentally to proceed with the interviews of each respondent.
The town’s first order of business moving forward is to schedule a meeting to interview all three companies.
“I’d like to interview them all and rank them all,” Hehn said. “I’d like us to interview them all and rank them all where if something doesn’t work with one we can move on to the second so we don’t get into the same problem we did with Wide Open.”
Mayor Taylor suggested the three interviews be conducted by the full board of commissioners and it would be understood they would bring financial documentation to the interviews.
“I look at these proposals and ask myself are these really apples to oranges and the way I can make it apples to apples is to ask the same questions of each of them and evaluate their answers that way,” commissioner Amy Patterson said.
Hehn suggested the companies’ attorneys sit in on the interviews and be able to address any concerns on the spot.
Town attorney Jay Coward recommended all attorneys attend the interviews.
Mayor Taylor directed IT Director Shuler to coordinate with commissioners and schedule the approximately 90-minute interviews to be concluded in a single day, within the next 10 days so as to have the three interviews complete before the Thanksgiving holiday.