Carrier Solutions News

Pole-top Perch a High-rent District
The Press Enterprise, March 25, 2000
By David Danelski

It’s not a new utility tax. It is an attempt by cities to get a piece of the action in the hot wireless communications industry by renting out space on street lights, roofs, utility poles and other city-owned spaces for a proliferation of antennas.

Other cities are taking notice. Riverside had received dozens of inquiries from Los Angeles to Moreno Valley, said Kathi Head, the city’s property manager.

"It looks like Riverside has taken the lead and done a lot of the legwork," said Douglas Witherspoon, Orange County’s permit manager. "We are just interested seeing what they accomplished."

"It’s a great idea and it is something we started to pursue," added San Bernardino’s Lori Sassoon, an assistant to the city administrator. Her city has just recently worked out a deal to lease antenna space to a wireless Internet service.

Using existing poles and other structures helps solve a land-use problem that surfaced more than a decade ago when cellular phones started to catch on, said Riverside Planning Director Steven Whyld.

When companies erect new poles for their antennas, neighbors generally object, he said. Companies have gone as far to disguise antenna poles as palm of pine trees.

Yet when antennas are affixed to street lights or other existing structures, no one seems to notice, Whyld said. "I haven’t got any complaints," he said.

"To be successful, we have to think like the businesses think," said Head. "We have to think, ‘How can we be entrepreneurial?’"

The city bases its price on what the market dictates and offers discounts to companies that rent multiple sites, Head said.

The strategy so far has won the city a large share of a business that pays from $400 to $1,400 per month per antenna site, Head said.

Of 65 antenna sites used by seven wireless communication companies in Riverside, 28 — or 44 percent — are owned by the city, including the top of call field lights at La Sierra Park.

It’s a business opportunity that is growing as more and more antennas are needed as more people use cellular phones, pagers and wireless Internet connections, John Mendez, a spokesman for AT&T Wireless Services.

It’s not clear how many more antennas will be needed. The demand is increasing while the technology is improving, allowing the newer antennas to serve more users, Mendez said.

Local government is already finding itself in competition with private industry.

Edison Carrier Solutions, a division of Southern California Edison, is aggressively seeking business from wireless communication companies that can put their antennas on company power poles, towers and roofs of buildings, said Alan Llorens, manager of external affairs for the division.

David Danelski can be reached by e-mail at ddaneiski@pe.com or by phone at (909) 782-7569

Fiber-Optic Network Set For Expansion
The Press-Enterprise, April 7, 2000
by Rick Burnham

At least a small part of the Inland Empire's demand for high-speed digital connections may be met by the region's dominant electric utility.

Edison Carrier Solutions -- the division created last year by Southern California Edison to sell excess capacity on its fiber-optic network -- expects to expand the network and sell more of its capacity to competing local telephone carriers, long-distance carriers, wireless operators and Internet service providers.

The expanded network will add to the Inland Empire's limited supply of technology infrastructure. That would be good news to Inland area civic, business and academic leaders, who fear the region is falling behind other California areas because of its shortage of tech networking.

Fifty to 75 miles of Edison's network extends into the Inland Empire, primarily in Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, Mira Loma, Rialto, Colton, Fontana and Grand Terrace, according to Alan Llorens, manager of external affairs for the division.

The company will add another 20 miles of network "in key access areas" of the Inland Empire this year -- part of a planned 300- to 400-mile extension of the overall network, Llorens said.

Edison is tying its network into more of the central offices of major carriers such as GTE and Pacific Bell -- a process called co-locating -- which could help other companies offer services to customers by utilizing Edison's capacity. "We are in about 20 central offices in our service area today and our goal is (to be in) 75 by year-end," Llorens said. That could help other companies that buy Edison's wholesale services to provide high-speed connections to customers.

The Edison division can't sell services directly to customers; instead it provides wholesale services to other companies, which provide products and services to customers.

The Edison division already has agreements to provide various services to the region's established carriers, GTE and Pacific Bell, Llorens said. But the Inland region won't benefit from another Edison alliance with RCN Corp. of Princeton, N.J., which plans to launch voice, video and high-speed Internet connections to 1.5 million households in the Los Angeles area.

RCN's plans do not include the Inland Empire, a company spokeswoman said. The company's priority is to provide bundled local and long distance phone, cable TV and high-speed Internet service to the nation's densest residential markets.

Density is a major reason why the Inland region doesn't have the technology infrastructure of Southern California's coastal markets. In densely populated areas, technology providers can get a faster return on investment because there are more households or businesses per mile.

The infrastructure shortage makes it much harder to attract both high-tech and other businesses to the two-county area, and for the region to compete, state Assemblyman Bill Leonard, R-San Bernardino, noted in a meeting about the problem in March. Businesses can't decide if they want to do business here until the infrastructure is in place, but the technology providers can't provide the infrastructure until they see there's demand, Leonard said at the meeting of manufacturing, university, emergency services and telecommunications representatives.

A study that identifies where the region's technology infrastructure exists and where it's needed is under way at the University of California, Riverside, said Michael Beck, director of new initiatives and economic development. The study should be completed later this spring, and Leonard expects to hold additional meetings to seek solutions to the infrastructure problem.

Ontario also is taking steps to assess its current technology infrastructure and plans for future growth. It hired Media Connections Group of Walnut Creek to assist in developing a digital communications master plan.

The first job will be to assess what infrastructure already exists and what the needs are for businesses and colleges, said Jim Babinski, director of information services for the city. "But we also have our 13-square-mile New Model Colony area (the former dairy preserve property now earmarked for home construction) where we'd like to get (technology infrastructure) specifications for developers and builders," Babinski said.

Ontario plans to meet with private industry and technology providers to extend high-speed, fiber-optic data connections throughout the city. "We're already seeing demand from businesses seeking relocation, and they want... very high-speed fiber-optic connections," Babinski said.