Procurement of Data Center Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) for National Telecommunication Corporation (NTC)

The Procurement Directorate of the National Telecommunication Corporation (NTC) Islamabad invites bids for the procurement of Data Center Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) under tender reference P160428. This procurement is for non-consultancy services to establish a sovereign cloud platform with advanced AI and GPU acceleration capabilities, hosted in secure Tier III data centers located in Islamabad and Karachi. Items being procured: - COLOCATION & OTHER SERVICES (Islamabad): High-Density Primary Colocation Rack (42U/48U cabinets supporting up to 20kW peak load), Fractional Rack Space, Metered Power, DDoS-Protected Internet Bandwidth, Standard Internet Bandwidth, Caging Services, Digital/Smart Access control for Caging and Racks - UNIFIED POWER SERVICE (Islamabad): Metered Power including all rack co-location components - CLOUD & OTHER SERVICES (Islamabad): Customizable VMs (vCPU and RAM), Block Storage (SSD), Object Storage (S3-Compatible), NPU nodes, Managed Virtual Network Firewall (VDOM), Elastic Load Balancer, Managed Virtual Web Application Firewall, Public Elastic IP Allocation, 24/7/365 Managed NOC/SOC Operations, Dedicated Resident Engineer workspace - COLOCATION & OTHER SERVICES (Karachi): Similar services as Islamabad with adjusted quantities - UNIFIED POWER SERVICE (Karachi): Metered Power - CLOUD & OTHER SERVICES (Karachi): Similar cloud services as Islamabad with adjusted quantities The scope includes provisioning and maintenance of high-density rack spaces, sovereign IaaS and storage platforms, advanced GPU-as-a-Service with AI orchestration, carrier-neutral connectivity with multiple independent carriers, and a fully integrated 24/7/365 Network and Security Operations Center located in Pakistan. The services will be acquired on a Pay-as-you-go pricing model with indicative quantities provided for evaluation. Eligibility requires bidders to have valid FBR registrations, not be blacklisted, and possess data center facilities in Islamabad and/or Karachi. Bidders must comply with stringent technical specifications including Tier III data center standards, data sovereignty, security certifications, and operational SLAs. Bids must be submitted electronically via EPADS v2.0 by Wednesday, November 4, 2026 at 11:00 AM. Manual submissions will not be accepted. Bid security and performance guarantees are required as per bidding documents. The contract duration is five years extendable up to ten years with annual price adjustments. Bidders are advised to carefully review the detailed bidding documents, scope of work, and terms of contract available on EPADS and the NTC website. A practical tip for bidders is to ensure full compliance with the data sovereignty and security requirements, as these are critical evaluation criteria and mandatory for contract award. Contact Person: Director (Procurement) Phone: +92-300-500-5219 Email: kashif.nawaz@ntc.org.pk Submission Method: Online submission through EPADS v2.0 portal only. Website: https://epads.gov.pk/opportunities/federal/procurements/160428