San Jose Exits Controversial BayWEB 700 MHz Stimulus Project

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jland138

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BayWEB is the San Francisco Bay Area's broadband (no voice) 700MHz LTE project. It was funded by NTIA from a $50 million broadband stimulus grant with the controversial assistance of Motorola. There were a few reasons that San Jose didn't want to sign the BOOM (Build-Own-Operate-Maintain) agreement. The biggest one is likely the cost of building and providing the required back-haul bandwidth. Unlike cities in the East Bay, San Jose does not have access to BART's (Bay Area Rapid Transit) fiber optic infrastructure. The existing microwave BayLOOP does not have the capacity to support the anticipated LTE bandwidth and San Jose did not want to be on the hook for building and providing it. Given the requirement that two thirds of the project must be complete by August 1, 2012 it seems certain that the project will not proceed. Other issues included the lack of progress for handling the 700MHZ spectrum licensing waver which is hung up at the FCC pending the outcome of D-Block legislation.

From the article:

Today’s vote by the 10-member City Council puts the controversial project at nearly fatally high risk of both grant funding cancellation by the U.S. Department of Commerce, and similar no funding votes by local jurisdictions across the region. Either or both scenarios would cause the project, awarded $50.6 million by Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to fail.

StimulatingBroadband.com: San Jose Exits Controversial BayWEB 700 MHz Stimulus Project
 

jeatock

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Wait a minute- that was a Federal cookie jar, not a California one. Imagine the implications of Mother not being able to do any federally-funded work for five years! Their lobbyists, lawyers, accountants and marketing folks might have to go find honest work. Look what saving taxpayer dollars would do to the un-employment numbers! It's an election year, after all.
 
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