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. Establishing this expansive wireless infrastructure will again demonstrate Silicon Valley's entrepreneurial leadership by expanding opportunities for emerging wireless technologies, increasing wireless enabled business development, improving government services, including applications for public safety and emergency response, and filling in gaps to affordable broadband services.
"Silicon Valley is a hotbed of innovation in wireless technologies," said Eric Benhamou, chairman of Smart Valley, Palm, 3Com and Benhamou Global Ventures. "Establishing a ubiquitous network will enable the deployment of a new generation of broadband services for our entire community, including small businesses, schools, non-profits, and all the citizens of our region."
Brian Moura
"Wireless Silicon Valley has the potential to revolutionize the way that City and County services are provided," said 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.
"Having an easy to use wireless network is going to make Silicon Valley more competitive when it comes to attracting conventions and visitors," said Dan Fenton, President and CEO of the San Jose Convention Center and Visitor's Bureau, and Co-Chair of the Wireless Silicon Valley Task Force. "The network will once again demonstrate that there is no better place in the world to do business than Silicon Valley."
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.
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 that will use your location to offer you information based on where you're standing, like the nearest coffeehouse, and who's having a sale on that HDTV flat panel TV you've been craving. Cities and counties will be able to track their police cars and street sweepers as they move through the region. If sensors indicate that a remote water pump is failing, the pump will be able to send a request for a repair crew."
The Smart Valley Wireless Communications Task Force consists of the Information Technology Managers and Economic Development Managers of most of the cities and counties in Silicon Valley. 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.
For more information, download "A Vision of a Wireless Silicon Valley."
