Silicon Valley Wi-Fi group closes in on vendor

The team planning a wireless network around Silicon Valley has narrowed down the list of possible vendors to three.

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The proposed project is so big -- covering about 1,500 square miles from San Francisco's southern border to the beach city of Santa Cruz -- that two of the three finalists will probably have a hand in building and running it, according to Seth Fearey, the project leader for the Wireless Silicon Valley initiative.

The finalists are MetroFi Inc., VeriLAN Event Services Inc. and the Silicon Valley Metro Connect Team, the Wireless Silicon Valley Task Force said Monday. MetroFi, in Mountain View, California, already operates Wi-Fi networks it built in nearby Cupertino, Sunnyvale and Santa Clara. VeriLAN is based in Portland, Oregon, and designs and supports wireless networks for events. The Metro Connect Team is made up of Cisco Systems Inc., IBM Corp., Azulstar Networks and the nonprofit corporation SeaKay Inc. Metro Connect aims to help set up wireless networks in many U.S. cities.

Along with Wi-Fi, all three would use WiMax, a wireless data technology that can cover several miles around with one base station. That heavily hyped technology is being rolled out in some places as an alternative to fixed broadband, and another version that allows mobile use is starting to emerge. "They seem to be saying they're prepared to roll out WiMax quickly," Fearey said.

The planned network is intended only for outdoor use. The winning vendors, Wireless Silicon Valley and individual cities and government bodies involved will together decide how much of the area will have coverage, Fearey said.

Seven entities responded to Wireless Silicon Valley's RFP (Request for Proposals), Fearey said. They were judged on 16 criteria, including Net neutrality and user privacy, which has been a hot topic in San Francisco's Wi-Fi planning.

Fearey's group, backed by 40 city, county and local entities across the region, is on schedule and hopes to have work begin on the infrastructure in January. The one or two winners should be chosen in early September, he said. Then a model contract will be negotiated with each vendor and individual cities will adapt a deal to local needs, with local government approval.