Govt. to publish Ruta 5D plans on Jan.22

Chile's government will release on January 22 plans for contracting a nationwide telecoms network linking all public sector institutions, called Ruta 5D, Tomas Campero, director of government e-procurement agency ChileCompra, told BNamericas. Once the government releases the calendar for the tenders, the first step will be to send out a request for proposals (RFP) to the private sector, which will prepare technical aspects for the project, he said. ChileCompra will be responsible for outlining the contract conditions while the interior ministry will manage the tenders, he said. The auction of contracts could take place in the first half of the year for implementation to begin in the second half, he said. The government expects the transfer to the new network to be implemented over the next two years, with 30% of public bodies connected in 2004 and the remainder in 2005. Ultimately the project aims to have 95% of Chile's public sector entities connected to the Ruta 5D network, he said. The government envisions awarding two contracts, the first to provide a nationwide virtual private network (VPN) for almost all public sector institutions including schools, hospitals and state companies and the second for connectivity between this VPN and external networks. The government is willing to pay up to US$70mn a year to the companies that win the tenders, Campero said, adding the figure reflects the amount of money the government already spends on communications. Although in earlier statements the government said it would seek to cut current communications costs by 15%, Campero said the government would concentrate on getting more quality for the price rather than necessarily seeking to pay less.