Updates

Wireless Silicon Valley adds Covad Communications to the team and plans test in San Carlos.

February 26, 2008. Wireless Silicon Valley has a new partner, San José-based Covad Communications, which will construct a test network in downtown San Carlos. Covad’s entry reinvigorates the project, which was offline for most of 2007 while the team searched for a workable business model that didn’t require taxpayer revenue.

Covad has a long history of providing business-class communication services using wireline and wireless technologies, and provides a promising complement to Cisco and the other members of the MetroConnect team. San Carlos was selected as the pilot because it provides a concentration of small and medium businesses and as well as public agencies, including SamTrans, CalTrain and the San Carlos city hall complex. Design of the network is now in progress and construction is slated to begin shortly; the test will last approximately three months.

Read the press release here.

Two cities selected as test sites for wireless network.

February 14, 2007.  Joint Venture, SAMCAT, and the Metro Connect team announced that the cities of San Carlos and Palo Alto have agreed to become the first sites of the Concept City phase of the Joint Venture Wireless Silicon Valley network.  Metro Connect will build out a one-square mile area in each city to demonstrate and test the capabilities of the wireless equipment and applications that will be implemented as part of the Valley-wide wireless broadband network.  The tests will take approximately 120 days.  During this time the test network will not be open to the public.

Read the press release here.

Joint Venture and SAMCAT announce selection of Silicon Valley Metro Connect to build valley-wide wireless network

September 5, 2006. The Smart Valley board and the San Mateo County Telecommunications Authority (SAMCAT) voted unanimously to enter into final negotiations with a team that includes IBM, Cisco Systems, Azulstar, and SeaKay. Silicon Valley Metro Connect will offer a wide range of wireless services for mobile users including a free, advertising supported service and paid services for city employees, mobile workers and visitors.

The next step is to negotiate a model agreement that can be approved quickly by city councils and county boards. If all goes well, the agreement should be ready for the cities in November. Construction could begin as soon as January or February 2007.

Read the press release here.

Privacy and security in a wireless world: a public forum

August 23, 2006. Over 120 people heard a panel of experts present their views on how to protect privacy and free speech on the Internet while providing law enforcement with the information they need to protect the public.

Click here to see the position papers and learn more about the issues.

Three proposals selected for further evaluation

August 2, 2006.  The Wireless Silicon Valley task force will meet with three vendors to learn more about their proposals:

  • MetroFi
  • Silicon Valley Metro Connect (Cisco Systems, IBM, SeaKay, Azulstar)
  • VeriLAN

The team will interview the companies and talk with current customers to decide which vendor or vendors to recommend for negotiation of a final, model agreement. The goal is to make a recommendation to the Smart Valley and SAMCAT boards in early September. Copies of the proposals are available below.

Responses to the Request for Proposal

Wireless Silicon Valley received seven responses to the RFP. You can download the documents by clicking the links below.

We asked the vendors to submit public and confidential versions of their proposals. The following are the public versions in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. These versions may not have all of the information in the confidential version.

Earthlink sent a letter in which they explain why they decided not to submit a proposal. That letter is available here. Questions on the letter may be sent to Jerry Grasso.

In some cases, vendors submitted additional documents, such as product literature, that are not included in these files.

Comments on the proposals may be sent to . We will not be able to respond to comments, but we will circulate them to the review team.

Newsflash (June 30, 2006): Wireless Silicon Valley gets seven responses to the RFP

Responses came from the following companies and teams of companies:

  • Azulstar, Cisco Systems, IBM, SeaKay (San Francisco)
  • Blue Horizon Group (San Francisco, California)
  • Community Wireless (Palo Alto, California)
  • Fire 2 Wire / Ubiquity Broadband Communities (Carmel, California)
  • MetroFi (Mountain View, California)
  • Next WLAN Corp. (Los Gatos, California)
  • VeriLan (Portland, Oregon)

Earthlink Municipal Networks sent a letter declining to participate.

The Task Force is very pleased by the response. A proposal review team is being assembled to narrow the set of responses to a "short list." The goal is to announce the best proposal or proposals by early September.

“Only in Silicon Valley can we bring together forty public agencies and the private sector to collaborate on the development of 21st century infrastructure,” said Eric Benhamou, chairman of 3Com and Smart Valley. “The excitement level among residents and wireless entrepreneurs about Wireless Silicon Valley and what it can deliver is very encouraging indeed.”

Download the press release (PDF) here.

Participation in wireless silicon valley grows to 40 members

The cities of Gilroy, Mountain View, Monte Sereno and Saratoga have joined the Task Force raising the total from 35 entities to 40. We are contacting the two remaining cities in Santa Clara County to get their participation.

Task Force Takes Questions from Companies Interested in the RFP

On May 12th, the Wireless Silicon Valley Task Force held a pre-proposal meeting with vendors to answer questions about the RFP. Fifty-five representatives of vendors attended the meeting in the council chambers at the City of San Carlos. More companies watched the meeting on the web and listened in by conference call.

The meeting opened with short presentations by several members of the task force representing different stakeholders, including local governments, UC Santa Cruz, an electrical utility, and the San Jose Convention Center and Visitors Bureau. Questions were asked about the requirements for the network and how the process for reviewing proposals will work. Members of the Task Force encouraged vendors to form teams that can address the entire solution rather than responding separately to different pieces.

Click here to view the webcast of the meeting. The video has been indexed to allow you to skip to sections of interest.

Vendors are encouraged to submit additional question by e-mail before May 22. The questions and responses will be sent to all registered vendors by May 26.

Wireless Silicon Valley Releases Request for Proposal (RFP)

On April 28, 2006, Wireless Silicon Valley released a Request for Proposal at a public forum in the Council Chambers of the City of Milpitas. A crowd of over 150 people heard Eric Benhamou, Smart Valley's chair, talk about the Internet as "an unfinished revolution." Eric sees ubiquitous access to the network, even when moving on a train or bus, as the next step. The technology is ready, the vision is possible. Silicon Valley must take this next step if it is to continue in its role as innovator and leading user of the latest information and communication technologies.

Eric's remarks were followed by presentations from representatives of a variety of stakeholders, including local governments, a construction company, libraries, a hospital, and the arts.

Click here to view the webcast of the meeting. The video has been indexed to allow you to skip to sections of interest.

Eric Benhamou

Click here to download a copy of the RFP. Attachments to the RFP can be downloaded the resource page..