The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries would like to review the user need and possible concepts for satellite based communication system in the northern areas.

Existing systems that offer satellite communication in the areas north of 75 degrees north have very limited performance and capacity. Due to large distances and a lack of coverage from land based infrastructure, there are few alternatives to satellites for seeing to the needs for communication in polar fairways. As notified in the Svalbard notification, the government will review how the communication challenges in the northern areas can be solved.

Any government investment in satellite based communication in the areas north of 75 degrees north must be founded on a total assessment of the Norwegian user sectors' needs.

The assignment includes preparation of a concept evaluation (KVU) for satellite based communication in the northern areas. The KVU shall be prepared as a total delivery from tenderers in accordance with the Ministry of Finance's scheme for quality assurance of major governmental investments. The KVU shall be carried out in accordance with the pre-requisites and chapter structure for KS1, which resulted from the Ministry of Finance's framework agreement from September 2015 (quality assurance of the choice of concept, as well as the governing documents and a cost estimate for the chosen project alternative).

For further description see annex 1 of the contract (the contracting authority's description of the assignment).