The BayWEB Examination
from
StimulatingBroadband.com
The BayWEB Examination is an information resource hosted by StimulatingBroadband.com.
We have assembled the most comprehensive information set relating to the BayWEB Project available to the public. BayWEB is a broadband public safety wireless network initiative slated to serve the San Francisco Bay Area. In August 2010 it was awarded $50.6 million in broadband stimulus funding by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce. BayWEB is one of the first 700 MHz LTE networks issued federal funding in the nation.
We first estimated in 2010 that BayWEB would come to be seen as the single most controversial, problematic, and legally troubling award nationally in the entire $7.2 billion broadband stimulus program of the Obama Administration. We hold to that belief, now in 1Q 2012.
We do not make this statement lightly, nor without reference to both the great successes and handful of glaring failures of the program elsewhere around the nation. We continue to sort through what we see in BayWEB, as objectively as possible. We do so based on our interviews with as many of the decision makers involved that will speak with us on the record. That is often a small group. We solicit and receive leaked documents routinely published here first. We have confidential sources in govenment agencies involved in the issue. We continue to make a series of document requests under federal and state law public records law.
We do not make this statement lightly, nor without reference to both the great successes and handful of glaring failures of the program elsewhere around the nation. We continue to sort through what we see in BayWEB, as objectively as possible. We do so based on our interviews with as many of the decision makers involved that will speak with us on the record. That is often a small group. We solicit and receive leaked documents routinely published here first. We have confidential sources in govenment agencies involved in the issue. We continue to make a series of document requests under federal and state law public records law.
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Our Stories
04/02/2011:
Alert: New York Times Reports on BayWEB Stimulus Grant Allegations
Alert: Stickling of Commerce Dept. to Meet with Stimulus Group that is Subject of Federal Probe
02/25/2011:
02/21/2011:
Motorola's BayWEB Broadband Stimulus Project Back in News
12/16/2010:
Alert: Motorola Confirms Inspector General's Audit of $50 Million BayWEB Broadband Stimulus Grant
11/05/2010:
11/01/2010:
10/13/2010:
10/05/2010:
10/01/2010:
10/01/2010 -
09/29/2010:
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BayWEB Backgrounder
What It Is
The Bay Area Broadband Enhanced Wireless Project (BayWEB) is funded with a $50.863 million broadband stimulus grant issued to Motorola, Inc. by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), U.S. Department of Commerce. The Project is slated to implement, throughout 10 counties in Northern California, one of the first 700 MHz LTE (Long Term Evolution) regional interoperable broadband wireless public safety systems in the nation. The grant to Motorola was supported by a hastily assembled paper organization appearing to represent a coalition of governments in the region.
BayWEB's lead local sponsor, the Bay Area Urban Security Initiative (UASI), cobbled together support for the award. UASI, funded by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) grants, is staffed by employees of the City and County of San Francisco, which serves as its fiscal agent, legal counsel, and management overseer. USASI's Executive Director is an appointee of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.
StimulatingBroadband.com first reported on the BayWEB Project on September 29, following several weeks of interviews and research. We received initial inquiries about the award within days of its announcement on August 18, and began examining the issue in early September. Our look at BayWEB followed published reports of charges lodged against it by government executives in jurisdictions the initiative is slated to serve. Our September 29 piece was first to report several aspects of the emerging narrative.
We will continue to publish original interviews, work to release documents improperly withheld from the public by the agencies in California and Washington, and provide the type of analysis the national broadband community has come to expect from us.
Why It Matters: Federal Capital Support for Broadband Going Forward
We did not set out to cover at a detailed level the allegations about, nor intricacies of, one single award in a national program we have covered since its inception. Similarly, we never intended that our reporting on another award would end up triggering the only broadband stimulus grant clawback / rescission in the nation. Frankly however, we believe that the federal broadband stimulus program has been beset with a variety of problems arising from both its conception and management.
We believe that in BayWEB we see a singular example of the most extreme failings of a program we remain strong advocates of. Unless and until we understand the select instances in which the national program has gone wrong, we will never know how to find needed solutions going forward. Those of us that believe federal capital subsidies are fully justified to bring broadband to all Americans have a particular responsibility to find those solutions.
Why It Matters: 700 MHz LTE for Public Safety
700 MHz LTE public safety systems will quickly grow into a multi-billion dollar sector of the telecom industry. BayWEB can be seen first and foremost as a marketing initiative by Motorola as it attempts to maintain its 80% market share in the public safety equipment space. There is a strong potential however that BayWEB will become an exemplar for how not to deploy these complex new networks. Metro areas around the nation need effective models of how to build the regional / intergovernmental consensus necessary to develop these systems. Most of the breathless press coverage about 700 MHz LTE interoperable systems is all about technology. BayWEB reminds us that more than half the challenge is about vendor neutral procurement, following the law, regional consensus, and government transparency.
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The BayWEB Press Log
Urgent Communications, by Donny Jackson, 10/22/2010
Urgent Communications, by Donny Jackson, 10/19/2010
San Jose Business Journal, by Mary Duan, 10/15/2010
StimulatingBroadband.com, by Peter Pratt, 10/13/2010
KGO-TV, San Francisco, 10/12/2010, by Vic Lee:
South Bay Officials Question $50 million Motorola Grant
KCBS San Francisco, by Matt Bigler, 10/11/2010
San Francisco Examiner, by Erin Sherbert, 10/10/2010
San Jose Mercury News, by Sean Webby, 10/10/2010
StimulatingBroadband.com, by Peter Pratt, 10/05/2010
StimulatingBroadband.com, by Peter Pratt, 10/01/2010
StimulatingBroadband.com, by Peter Pratt, 10/01/2010
San Jose Business Journal, by Mary Duan, 10/01/2010
StimulatingBroadband.com, by Peter Pratt, 09/29/2010
San Jose Business Journal, by Mary Duan, 09/10/2010
Urgent Communications, by Donny Jackson, 09/09/2010
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Document Collections
We have assembled an extensive library of online documents relating to the Project, affiliated efforts of UASI, and associated policy and program issues.
Thanks to the offices of Mayor Reed of San Jose and Dr. Jeff Smith of Santa Clara County, who have conducted extensive records filings under CPRA and FOIA, the City of San Jose now posts another extensive library of original documents on the Project. Some documents duplicate ours. The files are hosted online at: Urban Area Security Intiative Dcouments.
