RFQ No. 2025-MBI-09

Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (“Mass Tech Collaborative” or “MassTech”), on behalf of the Massachusetts Broadband Institute (“MBI”) is issuing this Request for Proposals for municipal digital equity planning services (RFQ No. 2025-MBI-09) (the “RFQ”) to solicit responses from qualified contractors (“Respondents”) with experience in digital equity and broadband planning. The submissions of all Respondents shall be compared and evaluated pursuant to the evaluation criteria set forth in this RFQ, and it is expected that multiple Respondents will be prequalified.

MBI intends to offer municipalities two service options to pursue digital equity planning activities with the support from their selected planning consultant, described in the following sections. Both service options are intended to yield similar outcomes in terms of deliverables, but will differ in process, duration of the planning activities, and level of detail and nuanced information provided to the municipality as an outcome of the planning process. Municipalities applying under the MDEP Program will be required to designate a staff member – either a municipal employee or elected official – who will be responsible for coordinating the municipality’s involvement and engagement in the planning activities. This designation will be a prerequisite for any municipality to be eligible to receive digital equity planning support. Consultants should expect that the municipal designee will assist with identifying key stakeholders in the community, reserving space for meetings/events, providing consultants with community context related to other activities relevant to digital equity planning, and other activities that require specific knowledge of a locality.

Municipalities will be allowed to apply for digital equity planning services jointly as “regions”, so long as there is one designated lead for each participating municipality.

Full details included in the solicitation linked below.

Team Lead:Ariana Fielding, proposals@masstech.org
Date Issued:February 3, 2025
Questions Due:February 10, 2025 at 5:00 p.m.
Answers to Questions Posted:February 21, 2025 at 5:00 p.m.
Applications Due:March 3, 2025 at 5:00 p.m.

Download Application Documents: