Smart Valley, an initiative of Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network (JVSVN), the San Mateo County Telecommunications Authority (SAMCAT), and Intel today announced the signing of an agreement to develop a Request for Proposal to design a high-speed wireless data network that will cover all of Silicon Valley.

The Smart Valley initiative envisions a broadband canopy covering a 1,500 square mile area stretching from Fremont in the East Bay, south to Gilroy, over the hill to Santa Cruz, and up the Peninsula to San Mateo. It is intended to increase wireless enabled business development, improving government services, including applications for public safety and emergency response, and filling in gaps to affordable broadband services.

The plan is to embrace various wireless technologies, from Wi-Fi to wide-area WiMAX and other techniques under one umbrella that will give residents of the region wireless coverage from home to work and around town.According to Brian Moura, Chair of SAMCAT, Assistant City Manager for the City of San Carlos, and Co-Chair of the Wireless Silicon Valley Task Force, “Police officers, firefighters, building inspectors, public works engineers and other government field personnel won’t have to go back to the office to get work orders, look up records, or submit reports. Maps, images, and even video will be available where ever they are in the Silicon Valley.”

Task force members envision government employees being able to use wireless systems to monitor crime scenes, fire locations, traffic signals, sewer pumps and water lines, and even wireless parking meters that dramatically reduce maintenance costs.

The Wireless Silicon Valley Task Force selected Intel to develop a Request for Proposal (RFP) because of its expertise with wireless data technologies. Intel® Solution Services (ISS) has collaborated on successful RFP’s for similar projects for the City of Portland, as well as projects with the City of Tempe and Arizona State University.

Intel Solution Services will provide a portion of its consulting services as an in-kind contribution. The Task Force is beginning to gather data for the RFP and hopes to release it in April, 2006. Intel has agreed not to respond to the RFP.

Intel’s Community Solutions brought together Portland Development Commission (PDC), working on behalf of the City of Portland, and Intel® Solution Services to prepare a request for proposals for a $15 million, 134 square mile citywide wireless network that would “promote economic and public benefits for community, business, and government use.” Intel is pushing Digital Communities, also called Smart Communities, to integrate new communications technologies into the workflow.

Andrew Johnson, a Comcast Bay Area spokesman, said his company’s position is that local municipalities reach too far when they consider building their own wireless networks. “The free market should be allowed to play out,” he said. “A municipal subsidy, or a provision of a municipal WiFi network would not be the best use of taxpayer funds.”

“WiFi hotspots are old news. What we need is a high-speed wireless data infrastructure that covers all 1,500 square miles of Silicon Valley.” - Seth Fearey, Smart Valley project Manager.”

The RFP will be issued by SAMCAT, which represents 16 cities and the County of San Mateo. Smart Valley is also seeking financial contributions to develop the RFP from an additional 26 Silicon Valley cities and counties. County of Santa Clara as well as the cities of Los Altos Hills, Los Gatos, Menlo Park, Milpitas, Morgan Hill, Palo Alto, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz - have already approved their contribution and are now participants in the project.

“The Wireless Silicon Valley network will provide local businesses with an incredible resource for developing and testing new products and services,” said Stuart Jeffery, a member of the Board of Directors of the Wireless Communications Alliance and a technical advisor to the Task Force. New services are in development include location-based advertising, tracking police cars and street sweepers and zigbee sensors for monitoring remote water pumps.

The Task Force has been meeting since late 2004 to learn about wireless technologies and applications, and develop a vision. Meetings are open to the public.

• Who will pay the cost of constructing the network
• How to cover the costs of operation and continuing equipment upgrades.

Cities across the country are testing a number of business models.

• A private company owns and operates the network. Users typically pay an hourly or monthly fee. The company pays the city for access to towers, light poles and roof tops. E.g. Cingular, Verizon, MetroFi, Comcast.
• The city or other public agency owns and operates the network, e.g. Cerritos, CA.
• A government agency provides capital to help fund construction of a network. An example of this model may be the City of Philadelphia.
• A Wireless Internet Service Provider provides free or low cost service in exchange for advertising fees from local businesses. Many downtown hotspots use this model.
• A non-profit organization is created by members of the community to provide access at below market rates, e.g. the Bay Area Research Wireless Network in San Francisco.

While there is no consensus on which model is best for Silicon Valley as yet, there is agreement that the cities would prefer not use their scarce capital resources to build a network. The Task Force is reviewing the experiences of other communities to determine which business models make sense for Silicon Valley.

Established in 1993, Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network provides analysis and action on issues affecting the region’s economy and quality of life. The San Mateo County Telecommunications Authority (SAMCAT) is a Joint Powers Authority (JPA) formed in June 1989 to manage the negotiations and renewal of the franchise for Cable TV with TCI for five agencies. Today, SAMCAT includes 17 agencies in San Mateo County (Belmont, Brisbane, Colma, Daly City, Foster City, Half Moon Bay, Hillsborough, Millbrae, Pacifica, Portola Valley, Redwood City, San Bruno, San Carlos, San Mateo, South San Francisco, Woodside and San Mateo County) with a combined population over 500,000.

Suffolk County on New York’s Long Island intends to cover every inch of the county with Wi-Fi. The county wants to partner with private industry and Stony Brook University in order to cover some 900 square miles with wireless broadband. “We think it’s high time that the county partner with the private sector and Stony Brook to make this a wireless county,” said County Executive Steve Levy, in an interview. “It would be good for our image and good for our economy.” The concept sprang in part from advances being made by Stony Brook University’s Center for Excellence in Wireless and Information Technology.

Philadelphia’s government estimates that it will cost $7 million to $10 million to construct its Wi-Fi network, which covers 135 square miles.

According to Muniwireless, at least 125 cities and counties already boast sizable wireless broadband networks - 60 in the United States and 65 outside the U.S. Om Malik’s Broadband Around The Planet Project, documents a “broadband profile” of countries around the globe.

High-profile cities currently include San Francisco, Philadelphia and Houston, but the “2006 Muni Broadband Outlook” from Light Reading, also mentions cities like Akron, Anaheim, Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Los Angeles, Lompoc, Miami Beach, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New Orleans, New York, Oklahoma City, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, Ore., Sacramento, Santa Clara, Spokane, St. Paul, St. Cloud, Florida, Seattle, and Tempe.