What are we doing?

Joint Venture’s Wireless Communication project is a collaboration between the wireless industry, cities, businesses and residents working to improve the wireless infrastructure in Silicon Valley and eliminate dead spots. The consortium builds on existing relationships with municipal governments to lead a coordinated public-private sector effort and mounts a highly strategic campaign to transform Silicon Valley’s wireless data & communications infrastructure.

Our Goals:

Educate Public and Private Sector Stakeholders – Identify key stakeholders in cities and educate them on the critical issues affecting the growth of the wireless industry.  Similarly, educate the wireless industry on how to partner with cities.

Promote Model Ordinances – Work with cities to provide best practices and guidelines for developing model wireless deployment ordinances.

Heighten Our Advocacy in the Local Jurisdictions – Provide a strong regional voice speaking to the competitive  and economic implications of a robust wireless infrastructure.

Expand Coalition – Reach out to other members of the wireless community including businesses and residents to broaden our advocacy base.

Why are we doing it?

Concerns regarding the wireless infrastructure have become even more urgent given the evolution of “smart phones” and other mobile devices that demand greater bandwidth. Many of these devices and the applications that run on them have been designed by companies right here in Silicon Valley. The success of these devices will affect the economic prospects of the region. Furthermore, these new devices will increasingly be critical to the way we do business and communicate.

To be an innovative region, Silicon Valley needs a reliable wireless network. Unfortunately, we don’t have one. This hurts our economy and our competitive position, and it even poses threats to our safety.

Why do we have this problem?

Basically speaking, we have this problem because our use of wireless devices has increased exponentially, and the infrastructure isn’t keeping pace. Increasing number of cell phones with text and voice capability have been pushing capacity limits. Now, with the addition and proliferation of smart phones and wireless broadband the network is reaching a point where we can no longer rely on it being available when we need it.

Meanwhile wireless communication growth continues unabated. From CTIA’s 2009 Year End Survey:

• We have currently 292 million subscribers in the U.S
  
• Reported wireless minutes of use in 2009 exceeded 2.75 trillion demonstrating a steady 3.3% year-over-year growth
  
• Users are making 291,000 E-911 calls daily across the U.S.
  
• Over 22% of the U.S. households are wireless only

A concerted coalition-led effort is needed to improve our infrastructure and solve this problem in a timely manner.

Who's involved?

Joint Venture Board Champion: Larry Alder, Product Manager, Google

Co-Chair: Dean Warshawsky, Council Member, City of Los Altos Hills
Co-Chair: Dr. Edwin Tasch, Chief of Neurology, Santa Clara Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente


Our project is guided by a Steering Committee Council consisting of:

• Brian Moura, Assistant City Manager, City of San Carlos
• Bruce Knopf, Director, Santa Clara County Office of Asset and Economic Development
  
• Ellen Magnie, Regional Program Manager, Silicon Valley, AT&T
• Ellis Berns, Economic Development Manager, City of Mountain View
• Jim Amato, Manager, SF Market, Clearwire
• Laura Altschul, Partner, Wireless Partners, Inc.
  
• Leon Beauchman, External Affairs, AT&T
  
• Matthew Yergovich, Regulatory Committee Co-Chair, California Wireless Association (CalWA)
  
• Mohammed Hill, Zoning Manager San Francisco Bay Area, T-Mobile
  
• Patti Ringo, Director, Municipal Relations, Western Region, Extenet Systems
  
• Randall Schwabacher, Senior Site Acquisition Manager, Wireless Consultant with PARSONS
  
• Rod De La Rosa, Sr. Mgr. External Affairs, T-Mobile
  
• Sean Scully, Regulatory Committee Co-Chair and Board of Director member, California Wireless Association (CalWA)
  
• Tasha Skinner, Consultant, Abound Consulting Group
  

Our project Advisors are:

• Jon Dohm, President, California Wireless Association (CalWA)
• Steve Emslie, Deputy City Manager, City of Palo Alto
• Officer Kenneth Dueker, Coordinator, Homeland Security and Public Outreach, City of Palo Alto
  

Latest Developments

Project kick-off meetings were held with both cities, the City of Palo Alto and the City of San Jose. After an energtic and fruitful discussion with City staff work areas were identified for each City. These work areas would streamline processes and facilitate communication between the wireless industry and the City improving the wireless permiting process. Work area examples: community outreach and awareness efforts, City staff education on wireless and sharing carrier coverage plans.

A Wireless Information Session was held on July 16, 2010 for the staff of Cities of San Carlos, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Los Altos Hills, San Jose and the County of Santa Clara. The two-hour session discussed wireless trends, technologies and its impact on permitting. Twenty-three staff members attended the session and interacted with industry representatives.  

A Right of Way discussion was held on August 12, 2010 with the Public Works group of the City of San Jose. The agenda included understanding City Ordinance, Community Outreach and DAS vs Wireless permitting.

What are the next steps?

We are working vigorously to launch specific events and programs. As progress is made in each of these areas we will update the website.

Steering Committee Meetings – Steering Committee meetings are held at 1:00pm on the first Monday of the month. Our next meeting will be held on September 13th.

Where do I find out more?

To learn more about the initiative, or to join the team, contact Ashwini Gillen, Wireless Communications Initiatives Director, at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .