The City operates a facility that experiences consistently poor cellular coverage throughout portions of the building and surrounding operational areas. Staff, contractors, tenants, and visitors have reported difficulties making and receiving phone calls, sending text messages, and accessing cellular services while within the facility. These issues have been observed across multiple cellular service providers and are believed to be caused by limited outdoor cellular signal strength, building construction materials, and facility design that restrict cellular signal penetration.
The City has invested in and maintains a reliable wireless network throughout the facility that supports business operations and provides dependable internet connectivity for authorized users. While this Wi-Fi infrastructure effectively supports organizational systems and applications, it does not fully address the need for reliable cellular connectivity. Visitors, contractors, tenants, and staff may not always have access to the City's Wi-Fi network, and cellular services remain critical for voice communications, text messaging, emergency notifications, and personal mobile device use.
The need for improved cellular coverage has been identified through staff feedback, operational assessments, and ongoing facility reviews. The lack of reliable cellular service can create communication challenges, particularly during facility incidents, or situations where individuals must rely on carrier-based services rather than the City's network infrastructure. To address these challenges, the City has determined that a dedicated cellular coverage enhancement solution is required. The facility is currently operational.
The objective of this Request for Proposal (RFP) is to solicit proposals from qualified vendors to assess, design, supply, install, configure, test, and support a cellular coverage enhancement solution for the facility.
The proposed solution must improve cellular voice, text, and data coverage throughout the facility while supporting major Canadian cellular carriers. The solution is intended to complement the City's existing Wi-Fi infrastructure by providing reliable carrier-based cellular connectivity for staff, visitors, contractors, and tenants.
The City seeks a scalable, cost-effective, and maintainable solution that addresses identified coverage gaps and improves the overall user experience for cellular communications within the facility. Vendors are expected to provide a comprehensive approach that includes site assessment, system design, implementation, testing, documentation, warranty, and ongoing support recommendations to ensure the solution delivers reliable cellular coverage and meets operational requirements.
