Commodity Internet Services

2026 IP Transit RFP Overview

The Quilt’s 2026 Commodity Internet Service RFP Process

One of the goals of The Quilt is to provide advanced network services at a lower cost. Toward this goal, the coalition of Quilt members and Authorized Quilt Buyers purchase Commodity Internet Services (CIS) through several approved CIS providers who participate in the program. The Quilt Community collectively purchases 4.1Tbps of committed commodity bandwidth from Authorized Quilt Providers established from The Quilt’s 11th RFP effort in 2023. 

The components of the 2026 RFP will be linked on January 5, 2026 and include:

1. CIS RFP Overview Document (download doc.)
2. CIS RFP Essay (download doc.)
3. CIS Provider Pricing Matrix (download xls.)

Through the RFP process, our goal is to identify those providers who, through their IP transit Internet service offerings, are willing and able to be partners in the delivery and development of our research and education networks through the United States. We will look to our approved commodity Internet services providers for pricing discounts appropriate to our levels of bandwidth consumption. We seek provider partners who are not only able to provide the best value, but are also at the forefront of technology and are committed to work closely with Quilt members to develop and expand technology beyond that of a standard provider-customer relationship.

RFP Release

Schedule of RFP Activities

If you have any questions regarding the documents or RFP process, please contact Michael Lambert: qt-2026cisrfp@thequilt.net

2026 CIS RFP Q&A

Q: How many Authorized Providers will be selected?

A:  Providers will be selected based on merit. There may be as few as zero or there may be several. There is no set number

Q: Are Quilt participants required to purchase from the Authorized Providers?

A:  No. While there are significant advantages to The Quilt participants to purchase from Authorized Quilt Providers, participants are free to choose their own solutions based on their individual needs.

Q: Who are the Authorized Quilt Buyers?

A: The Quilt’s members vary from one regional network to another. In some cases, the regional network will be the only purchaser of Internet (IP Transit) services. In other cases, the ‘connected’ entities of the regional network may be the purchasers. Since this varies from region to region, The Quilt maintains a list of organizations that are approved to purchase services under the auspices of The Quilt Provider agreements. See Exhibit A of the sample Agreement, for the current list of Buyers. Note, this list changes over time and these changes are communicated to our Providers.

Q: What are the negotiating requirements for an Authorized Quilt Provider?

A:  The pricing quoted in the RFP response is the only pricing that a Provider may offer to a Buyer. Providers may, of course, offer pricing outside of the RFP response to customers not on the Buyer list. If a Provider wishes to offer lower pricing to a Buyer than that which was quoted in their Master Service Agreement (MSA) with The Quilt, then  the Provider must amend The Quilt MSA to make the lowest pricing available to all the Buyers. Amendments will be considered at any time.

Q: Some areas where it might ask for a response, Are there any responses required on overview doc?

A:  No, the essay is the document where your responses will be evaluated. 

Q: RFP docs note prices must include taxes and fees. Given we don’t have control over taxes, how do we indicate this in a response?

A:  We understand that taxes are not within a provider’s control.  We are interested in RFP responses and provider billing practices that clearly delineate between provider fees and taxes.  For RFP responses, we understand that costs labeled as taxes are an indication of the current taxes controlled by taxing authorities and are subject to change.  We seek to avoid situations where taxes and providers fees are lumped together into a single line item without transparency into the sources of these fees.

Q: Is The Quilt only interested in 12-month pricing or are longer terms of 24-months and 36-months also being considered?

A:  RFP responses will be evaluated on 12-month pricing.  However, there are places in the pricing matrix to offer other pricing for extended term contracts. 

Q: What is the optimal approach to the Quilt PoP locations that are provider near-net locations that might require a loop or backhaul to another pop location?

A: In general, we are looking to connect with a provider at an on-net location.  For a near-net location that requires an additional connection and/or backhaul, it is important to note that for that location and mention if there will be a 3rd-party cost involved.  It is not necessary to include the actual price of the third-party connection cost.  Only to note that a third-party connection cost will be involved.

Q: In colocation facilities where cross-connects are required, is it necessary to list cross-connect pricing?

A:  The answer to this will vary by facility type.  If it is your colocation facility, we expect that to be included in the price of the connection.  For a colocation facility for which a third-party cross-connect is required, just note that a 3rd party cross-connect will be required.

Q: Can you describe the role of the Authorized Quilt Buyer in the RFP process? How is this different from The Quilt’s role in the RFP?

A:  The Quilt is a community comprised of 41 R&E networks. Each member network has its own list of Authorized Quilt Buyers.  Providers awarded through the RFP process will sign a Master Service Agreement with The Quilt for Quilt program pricing.  Authorized Quilt Buyers will be the entities that will sign the provider’s end-user agreement with terms as conditions.

Q: The RFP overview document stated that Quilt members collectively purchase 4.1 terabytes of bandwidth. How many of the buyers are buying through Quilt Authorized Providers today rather than through other service providers?

A:  The 4.1 terabyte bandwidth purchase number is the current amount of aggregated committed bandwidth purchased from Authorized Providers.  This number does not reflect transit purchased through providers outside the program, nor does it reflect the amount of bursting bandwidth used by Buyers which is significant.

Q: Can you explain the situations when a Buyer would be interested in spreading the committed bandwidth purchase over multiple ports?

A:  Quilt members are network aggregation points for Research & Education organizations within a certain geographic territory and have high-capacity CIS needs such as transit, service resiliency, traffic management, etc..  Multiple 10Gbps, 100Gbps and 400Gbps ports per organization are now standard. A pricing model that supports one Authorized Quilt Buyer (AQB) purchasing several circuits and spreading the AQB’s cumulative committed data rate across those circuits would be useful.

Q: How do we indicate on the PoP location spreadsheet that we are willing to consider building into a specific location depending on Buyer demand to help make the business case?

A:  You may note just that on the spreadsheet that this location is currently off-net but that you are willing to consider buildout if the business case can be made for location demand.

Q: What percentage of the Quilt member’s service locations (PoP location spreadsheet) do we need to serve to have a competitive RFP response?

A:  This PoP location list tells you where our Buyers can meet you.  If you have locations in the vicinity, that is interesting information to us.  We recognize not any single provider will get to all locations.  We are seeking to provide multiple options to our Buyers where possible for diversity while also looking at opportunities to reach unique locations.  Please use the note field for information about a particular site or geographic area.

Q: Is The Quilt willing to sign an NDA before we provide response to proprietary network information?

A: The Quilt does not execute NDAs.  We hold all information provided to us through the RFP process in strict confidence.

Q: Who are the current program Providers?

A:  From our most recent RFP cycle in 2023, 365 Data Centers, Arelion, Cogent, GTT, Lumen, and Zayo were selected as Providers.

Q: How many Quilt Buyers participate in e-rate? How much of the Buyer business is going through the Form 470 e-rate process?

A:  The majority of Buyers on our authorized Quilt list are higher education institutions that do not participate in e-rate.  For K-12 schools, a small percentage may go through the Form 470 process, in which case, a Provider may respond using the Quilt program pricing in their response.

Q: Any chance of an extension for the RFP deadline?

A:  No. Short of a natural disaster, we will not extend the deadline for RFP responses.

Q:  What are the negotiating requirements for a Provider?

A:  The pricing quoted in the RFP response is the only pricing that a Provider may offer to a Buyer. Providers may, of course, offer pricing outside of the RFP response to customers not on the Buyers’ list. If a Provider wishes to offer lower pricing to a Buyer than that which was quoted in their Master Service Agreement (MSA) with The Quilt, then the Provider must amend The Quilt MSA to make the lowest pricing available to all the Buyers. Amendments will be considered at any time.

Q:  If a provider on the Quilt MSA wants to offer a lower pricing to a member of Quilt, must the provider offer that same price to all members of Quilt?

A:  It’s required via the contract vehicle to offer it to all members

Q:  Does the requirement to provide MSA pricing to all members apply to service provided to members at physical locations other than the MSA sites?

A:  It is not a contractual requirement but something we would like for you to do. It is not a full list you see in the MSA, but a broad sampling list.

Q:  With an understanding that contracts for new services are negotiated directly with the Buyer. Do all contracts need to be coterminous with the Quilt MSA?

A:  No, it is not required that the end user contract be coterminous with The Quilt contract. The Quilt contract bounds the program pricing that you’re offering to AQBs, but the end user contract binds the end user with terms and conditions.

Q:  Does the provider have “right of refusal” for any request for service?

A:  Short answer is yes, but The Quilt would love to know why. It’s your business and it is subject to conditions in your state.

Q:  If the Provider has an existing contract arrangement with a Buyer, when the Provider is selected by The Quilt to become a provider partner, does The Quilt expect the same rates we are currently providing service to a Buyer to become part of our MSA with The Quilt?

A:  It is something we like to see but, contractually, if you’re 3 months into a 3 years contract, you can wait until renewal for that to happen.

Q:  Does the reporting to Quilt of service contracts with Buyers extend to services beyond those purchased via the Quilt MSA?

A:  This MSA is specifically around commodity internet. We’re also asking a separate question this year about other services you may offer. These other services are not part of the scoring in this RFP. We would like to have feedback about sales of other services you offer as a provider as part of your response if you’re selected but it’s not part of the required reporting of competitively bid commodity internet services.

Q: What is the Quilt pricing model based on?

A:  2b- The Quilt pricing model is based upon an organizational aggregate of the AQB committed bandwidths with each AQP. As the aggregate goes up, the price goes down. The unique part of this model is that the aggregate is taken across many organizations.

Q:  How is the bandwidth across all organizations being tracked?

A:  If you are awarded, you get a liaison. For example, Jennifer is program liaison for Zayo and she sets up a monthly call with them. During those conversations, Zayo gives Jennifer a report of their aggregate bandwidth. If Zayo sells to one of the members who are authorized to purchase off this contract, they pull it in a report that includes port size, how many gigs, location, etc. 

Q: Regarding Pricing sheet Tab 2C:  Cross connect charges are typically administered by the PoP, not the service provider, how can the cross connects be predicted?   Is the bidder expected to indicate AQP charges in addition to charges invoiced to the end user by the data center operator? Or is this meant to be inclusive of both?

A:  We are asking about additional fees, taxes, charges.

Q: Since the RFP is clear that any costs born outside of what was bid would be responsibility of provider, the provider is concerned that if we give you a range of cross-connect charges but after the deal is signed and those charges are grossly more than expected, it will put the provider in a vulnerable place. Not knowing where the end user is located in the data center leads to more unpredictability because it will determine costs. Without this knowledge, it’s hard to predict what the fees will be. We don’t want to contractually obligate ourselves through this bid to cover an unknown. Legal team is going to want down to dollar whatever we’re obligating ourselves to bid. Unless an amendment is required that relieves the exacting nature of that requirement

A:  It is important for us to know what charges would impact that location. The comment field gives us that understanding. We want to know delineation between costs within your org’s control and those not in your org’s control. If there’s an AQB that’s looking at that location 12 months from now, we can see the cost components in the company’s control and not in its control. Visibility into delineation in the comment field would be helpful. For example, you can put “TPC customer provided cross connect” in the comment field.

 Q: Is there a portal we’re logging in and uploading things to?

A:  No, all responses will be sent to Jennifer Griffin by email.

Q: For location based surcharge and CPI – is that in reference to consumer price index? And would a location based type of property tax be a surcharge?

A:  Anything you can give us to help us better understand all the charges will be helpful. It helps set expectations

Q: Aggregated model (tab 2b) – on tab a, you’re going to see an economy of scale price per meg based on volume there, so how is that different from the aggregation discounts?

A:  Aggregation changes. If you are selling your cost and filling the pipes, at some point you are going to hit an aggregation tier. Once you hit that tier, we expect there to be a drop in price.

Q: It’s one thing on tab a to have one customer order a 10G at the 10G rate but then a different thing if you have 10 customers order 10G  – are you saying you would like to see an aggregation discount at 100G once that level of volume sales is achieved? Is the aggregate across all authorized Quilt buyers?

A:  Correct. Tab 2a is pricing per individual and tab 2b is when you aggregate the individual list of purchases of AQBs, what we look like at national scale. 2a is starting point.

Q: Are you expecting to see the same discount applied and spread across multiple locations? Or limited to one site?

A: Across all locations.

Q: Does The Quilt assist in administration when you go from tier 1 and tier 2 and need to does an amendment need to be signed? Someone has to track this.

A:  We understand that sales teams roll over – this is why we have Vendor liaisons. When a vendor reaches a new aggregated tier level, a new amendment will be signed and that new pricing gets sent out to our community. The expectation is that your business systems continue to support reporting and that data is accessible to any new team members to report on progress in the program. 

Q: If we have new product we’re offering, can I include white papers?

A:  Yes, you may include white papers, one-pagers and any material that will help explain the service offering.