The troubled BayWEB project is based on an ethically questionable business model that is fiscally unsustainable.  Engineering and funding uncertainties far outweigh all possible benefit to the public safety community.  It appears that the San Jose City Council shares my opinion.

The San Jose City Council unanimously approved a staff recommendation to:

1) Approve a report on the status of site access and use agreement negotiations with Motorola to use four San Jose radio sites for the public safety component of the regional broadband system called BayWEB.

2) Authorize the Mayor to sign and file, together with Oakland and San Francisco, an amended petition with the FCC for a waiver to use the 700 MHz public safety spectrum.

3) Approve San Jose’s Comments on the San Francisco Bay Area Regional Interoperable Communications System (BayRICS) Joint Powers Authority System Funding Plan for filing with the BayRICS JPA. (Note: these comments are Attachment D of the staff report.)

4) Policy direction to San Jose’s BayRICS representative to vote no on the Build-Own-Operate-Maintain Agreement (BOOM) between the BayRICS JPA and Motorola.

The recommendation to Council comes after San Jose has invested thousands of hours of staff time in working to ensure that the BayWEB project meets the needs of our public safety first responders now and in the future. San Jose’s legal and management staff helped create the BayRICS Joint Powers Authority, and participated on the negotiations team for the final BOOM Agreement with Motorola since the Spring.

Related articles:

San Jose Exits Controversial BayWEB 700 MHz Stimulus Project // StimulatingBroadband.com  – Tuesday, December 13, 2011

San Jose Votes No on BayWEB Funding // RadioResource Media Group — Wednesday, December 14, 2011

San Jose Declines LTE Deal with Motorola // Urgent Communications – Wednesday, December 14, 2011