The district of Düren (hereinafter: "Client") intends to participate in the so-called Graue-Flecken-Programm according to the federal funding guideline "Funding to support the gigabit expansion of telecommunications networks in the Federal Republic of Germany" of 26.04.2021 (FörderRiL Gigabit) on the basis of a political resolution and with the consent of all 15 cities and municipalities belonging to the district and thus to further supply the district of Düren with broadband telecommunications services improve.

For the preparation and implementation of a market exploration procedure and one or more procurement procedures for the construction of a passive network infrastructure for the development of a sustainable as well as future-oriented and high-performance broadband network (NGA network) in the underserved areas (here so-called "grey NGA spots") of the district of Düren in the profitability gap model in accordance with para. 3.1 FörderRiL Gigabit as well as to support the handling of the funding procedure in the course of the funded broadband expansion, consulting services are required on a technical and technical level. The aim of this call for tenders is therefore to commission the corresponding technical consulting and support services. The services are to be commissioned in stages, initially only the services until the creation of a decision-making and expansion strategy, on the basis of which a funding application or several funding applications are to be prepared. For more information on the step-by-step assignment, please refer to the service description under para. II.2.

The objective of this call for tenders is to award a contract for the necessary technical advisory and support services for the preparation and implementation of a market exploration procedure and one or more procurement procedures for the construction of a passive network infrastructure for the development of a sustainable, future-oriented and high-performance broadband network (NGA network) in the underserved areas (here so-called "grey NGA spots") of the district of Düren and for the Support in the handling of the funding procedure in the course of the subsidised broadband expansion.

The district has a counselling subsidy according to para. 3.3 FundingRiL Gigabit for four cluster areas applied for and approved. For this call for proposals, the four funding items will be bundled into one lot in order to receive the service "from a single source". However, the provision of services and billing takes place separately for each funding item.

According to the FundingRiL Gigabit and the framework regulation of the Federal Republic of Germany to support the nationwide construction of gigabit networks in "grey areas" of 26.04.2021 (gigabit framework regulation), the pick-up thresholds are to be lowered from 01.01.2023, so that so-called "dark grey spots", which have more than 100 Mbit/s in the download, but less than 200 Mbit/s symmetrically (download and upload), should be eligible. The district reserves the right to switch to the dark grey spots in the current contract in compliance with state aid, funding and procurement law if, as a result of the first stage, a funding application within the framework of the light grey spot programme is not considered useful and advisable, or to extend the contract by the dark grey spots. The placing of the order for the dark grey spots depends in any case on the fact that the district is granted the necessary funding, in particular for the consulting service, and that financial viability is ensured. It is therefore made clear once again that the subject of the order is initially only the consultation in the context of the light grey spots and not yet the dark grey spots.

For further details, please refer to the procurement documents, which can be downloaded from https://www.vergaben-wirtschaftsregion-aachen.de/VMPSatellite/notice/CXQ1YYHYXYJ/documents.