Category: Telecom & Cable Service

  • Foster City: A caution warning to the wise

    Having spent several decades providing technology advice to companies and agencies large and small, I have long harbored concerns about small municipalities’ IT security and stability. The threats just get stronger every year and small cities with small IT staffs and budgets struggle to keep up in the best of times. That chicken came home to roost in Foster City this week as the SF Comicle reports:

    Foster City officials said Friday that a ransomware attack was “widely impacting” municipal services, and that city leaders planned to issue a state of emergency in an effort to marshal assistance and funding from outside agencies. 

    Officials said in a statement that while emergency services like 911 were “functional and unaffected,” information and services that rely on the city’s computer network would likely be inaccessible Friday. City Hall remained open to the public Friday, although officials said “limited services” were available there. 

    “Out of an abundance of caution, those who have done business with the City of Foster City are encouraged to change their personal passwords and take measures to protect their personal data,” the city said.

    I’m not sure what “personal data” the City of Burlingame might have on us aside from an email address if you subscribe to getting council or commission agendas sent to you. Same goes for the alertcrimegraphics feed. They would hold emails you sent to staff or electeds (at their official addresses), but you can’t “change” that. There’s one’s water bill which makes for a dull read. Local business owners probably have a deeper data profile. In any case, this breach and the ransomware demand are a word to the wise. There are a variety of low-to-high-cost consultants and auditors out there and one would hope city staff are availing themselves of knowledgeable advice. Fifty or a hundred grand every couple of years is money well spent.

  • A Cautionary Tale: Caltrans and Guerneville

    The SF Comicle has brought us a cautionary tale about the Caltrans project to upgrade Guerneville's main drag which is also a state highway.  The four block long project has echoes to the B'game Ave. streetscape project done years ago, but I'm hearing warnings about our forthcoming El Camino Real project that I've taken to calling the "Little Big Dig".  Here are a couple of snippets from the Comicle piece starting with the blunt advice from a local business owner that concludes the article:

    “If I had advice for the next community — get a lawyer,” gallery owner Douglas DeVivo said.

    Caltrans spokesperson Jeffrey Weiss said the project to upgrade Guerneville’s sidewalks to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act was originally slated to begin last summer. Caltrans delayed the project start “to minimize construction impacts on merchants during the town’s busy summer season,” he said in an email. The agency said that “additional delays occurred when the contractor encountered unrecorded, abandoned underground utilities, railroad ties, and large redwood tree stumps and root systems,” and that “you never know what you’ll find in an old community when you start digging.”

    Truer words were never spoken.  You never know what you'll find once the backhoe arrives.  And they weren't cutting down hundreds of huge trees and undergrounding three or four types of overhead wires.

    Like many small towns across California, a state highway also serves as Main Street in Guerneville.  That has left Guerneville residents few avenues to weigh in on how revamping their town — from business disruptions to aesthetics — might unfold.

    The project included widening sidewalks, installing 23 curb ramps to accommodate wheelchairs, adding traffic signals and sidewalk bulb-outs at corners crossings as well as two pedestrian beacons.  County Supervisor Hopkins said that some delays have been understandable, given the lack of documentation for the pipes or old-growth redwood stumps under the sidewalk’s surface. 

    Weiss also said that during the sidewalk excavation, crews “noticed that the roadway drainage was in poor condition and extensive repairs were made.” 

    We certainly have that to look forward to.  It's really the main issue that needs to be resolved, but the rest of the add-ons to meet Caltrans code and bury the wires will make our roughly three-mile project seem longer.  I worry about the fire, police and ambulance response time.  And the illegal delivery truck blockages need to stop.  While ECR isn't our central commercial district, our Broadway and Avenew businesses will probably feel some of the same effect as Guerneville did.  Let's hope it's mild and nobody has to lawyer-up.

  • 911: An hour of rerouting calls

    If you are on the SMC Alert system via text and/or email you got this notice last night at 1:31am:

    SMC Alert: The City of Burlingame Phone lines are currently down. 911 lines are being routed and answered by Redwood City Police Dept. For all non-emergency calls, please contact the City of San Bruno's business line # 650-616-7100. San Bruno and Redwood City will be able to forward information to Burlingame Police so officers can be dispatched accordingly. Thank you for your patience while this problem is being worked on.

    Thankfully it was followed by the All-clear email about an hour later at 2:27am:

    SMC Alert: All Burlingame Police lines are back in service. For non emergency calls, dial 650-777-4100 and for emergency calls dial 911.

    I know a bit about how the 911 system and call centers and phone lines work so if I get any details from BPD, I will pass them along.  I like having our own dispatch since the dispatchers know their way around B'game.  There is no substitute for local institutional knowledge.  You should also keep the non-emergency number in your phone.

  • BNN: Volunteer Appreciation

    The many volunteers who helped make last October's Disaster Preparedness drill a success around town were treated to coffee, doughnut holes and reminders of how well Burlingame is doing (compared to many communities) and how much there is still to be done.  The Saturday morning get together at the main fire station featured the chief, the mayor and several BNN leaders celebrating the many neighborhood drills and reminding everyone of additional opportunities like the CERT and ham radio training coming up on June 1st.  It's a word of mouth marketing exercise and some new neighborhood volunteers were in attendance so this year's drill will be even better.

    Yours truly was one of three raffle winners of a disaster kit from Earth Shakes which was great.  If you want one too they are found here.  Here's the crowd listening to Mayor Colson.

    BNN Volunteer Appreciation1

  • Cell antennae: 4G, 5G, Gee how many?

    An issue that has been simmering in B'game and elsewhere for a long time is the number and placement of additional cell antennae around town.  The migration to 5G is starting to pick-up in the U.S. although we are probably still a couple of years from seeing much in town.  Yet coverage is still spotty in many places and the various providers are looking for ways to fill-in coverage which means more gear on poles or towers.  The Daily Post did a piece a couple weeks ago about a major tower management company, Crown Castle, seeking to add seven nodes in Palo Alto.  The article is instructive on the look of things to come

    Crown Castle wanted to place an antenna on each of the small cell node light poles, with the associated mechanical equipment going in a green fake mailbox on the sidewalk nearby.  City planners didn't like the idea of fake mailboxes, which they said would clutter up sidewalks and are susceptible to damage.

    The net result was approval to put all of the gear on top of the light pole in a green cylinder and their council upheld that decision 4-3.  The Telecom Act of 1996 and a subsequent FCC ruling really tie municipalities hands on cell growth, but the top-of-pole vs. "fake mailbox" vs. underground vault dispute is likely to continue.  Coming to a light pole near you soon.

    IMG_7652

  • El Camino Task Force

    The Daily Journal covered a task for meeting this week about El Camino with an overall theme of "we are working better with Caltrans".  I certainly hope so because things have not really been improving since well before this October post.

    Officials and residents are working alongside the state Department of Transportation to draft a new vision for Burlingame’s stretch of El Camino Real, while balancing safety concerns against the desire to preserve a historic tree grove.

    A task force comprised of residents seeking improvements to the main thoroughfare met Monday, Feb. 26, to discuss their recommendations for El Camino Real’s future.

    Assuring pedestrian safety, fixing badly damaged sidewalks, suggesting placing utilities underground and preventing flooding were among the infrastructure projects identified by the task force.

    The "FLOODING" signs were sort of a cruel joke until this week's rainfall since February was the 16th driest February in the last 169 years.  More importantly, there hasn't been a lick of work to fix the flooding in years.  I regularly walk by two drains on ECR that have been plugged for at least three years and Caltrans knows exactly where to put the signs even before it rains.

    I also hope the task force does not confuse "pedestrian safety" with "let's get rid of the eucalyptus trees that pull up the sidewalks" since the eucs are the #1 pedestrian safety feature on ECR.  Try walking on a section of the road that does not have eucs or elms in the median strip.  It's dangerous and you can get soaked as well.

    EC Flooding1

  • Cell Sites vs. Neighborhoods

    The issue of so-called "small cell sites" has simmered in B'game for years.  I've lost track of the old lawsuit from a small provider, but that isn't the issue here as the SacBee tries to tie the progress of the bill to political donations from "Big Telecom".  The SacBee has a piece that ties it to better rural fire response stemming from better cell coverage.  Well, we don't have that problem here in B'game–coverage is great, but we do have neighbors who do not want big "small cell sites" dotting their median strips and street corners.

    But as the bill (SB 649) breezes through the Legislature with few dissenting votes, hundreds of city and county governments are pushing back. They say it removes their discretion over where unsightly “small cell” wireless antennas – some as big as a refrigerator with their associated equipment – will go, and reduces by millions the leasing fees they collect from the companies to place cells on public lands.

    The state would dictate how much jurisdictions can charge providers for leasing public space on telephone poles, street lights, traffic signals, parts of sidewalks and spaces in public parks. Private landowners would still be able to negotiate with companies about design and location of cells on their land as they do now.

    “It’s a Pandora’s box for California cities,” said Reinette Senum, a city councilwoman in Nevada City. “It’s one that blatantly strips local government of the authority to protect quality of life for residents, the environment and the public right-of-way.”

    If you read through the rest of the SacBee article, they confuse donations by "Big Telecom" companies with those advocating easier placement of "small cell sites".  We know from local experience that it isn't always the name brands that want the sites.  Jolene Voorhis, executive director of Urban Counties of California says “I don’t want to be too crass, but they give a lot of money, and we can’t.”  Rather than worrying about being crass, it would be good if Ms. Voorhis worried about being accurate and accounting for the concerns of the people who live near the not-so-small sites. 

  • Sticking to the Knitting

    Who recalls the hullabaloo of seven years ago when the City used a bunch of staff time and energy putting together an application for the Google Fiber for Communities city selection?  At the time, I noted to several council members that this was way more involved than they understood and really not worth our effort.  Fast forward to yesterday's Wall Street Journal with the front page headline: Google's Fiber Plans Stall.  The article notes several things for the "I told you so file" including:

    In Kansas City, homeowners complained about destroyed lawns and ruptured gas lines.  "Wireless connections are 'cheaper than digging up your garden' to lay fiber" (their chairman's words)

    In Nashville and Louisville, competing telecom firms are blocking the company from stringing fiber on their utility poles.  (Same thing I told at least one council member back then–the technical term is Pole Attachment Rights and they are strict and enforceable).

    "If you are in the telecommunications business for 150 years, there are no surprises here," said Jonathan Reichental, chief technology officer of the city of Palo Alto.  "But if you're a software company getting into the business for the first time, this is a completely new world."

    Google is shifting to a wireless last link possibly using street lamps as the placement option.  B'game also spent considerable time and effort pushing back on the neighborhood wireless antenna plans of a much smaller company.  I don't recall how that all played out, but in any case, a word to the wise is to "Stick to your knitting".  Rule #6 from In Search of Excellence. 

     

  • Historical Footnote – 1915 Transcontinental Phone Call

    Those of you who know me well know that I owe a lot to the telephone industry.  I got my start in it in 1979 and worked for seven different phone companies of one sort or another.  One of those was GTE Sprint headquartered in good ole B'game.  Its first office at One Adrian Ct. is still there and still sports a Sprint sign.  We will discuss why that is another day.  Suffice it to say, AT&T was the competitor to beat for a long time.

    For today–the centennial of the first transcontinental phone call–we will put that aside.  Cnet does a nice job of describing AT&T's accomplishment here.

    The four original phones used to make the call rarely come out of the AT&T archives for a public viewing. This past week, however, they were unveiled, and they will be on display at the California Historical Society in San Francisco as part of its "City Rising: San Francisco and the 1915 World Fair" exhibition at 678 Mission Street, which officially opens on February 22.

    Transcontinental-call-att-1901(1)

    Road trip!!

     

  • Suburban Shuttles Service B’game

    The Friday Journal section of the Wall Street Journal (March 16) has an article titled "The Hot Spot for the Rising Tech Generation" that is highlighting Noe Valley and the Mission as the scenes of intense bidding wars for houses and lofts.  Median home prices in the Mission grew 44% in December (year over year).

    The hottest properties are near corporate shuttle bus stops–where employees for companies like Google, Facebook, Genentech, LinkedIn and Apple line up daily for the ride to Silicon Valley.  Real-estate agent Amanda Jones calls it the "Shuttle Effect" and said proximity can command as much as a 20% premium.  Some real-estate agents said they're dying for a map of where the buses pick-up.  "When a listing gets deluged with people–that tells me it's close to a stop." said Ms. Jones.

    Some companies share a few of the same stops, occasionally leading to employees getting on the wrong bus.  Discussions can get animated about adding or moving a stop….

    I have seen the return side of this service in action here in B'game as employees spill out of 330 Primrose in the evening and board the shuttles.  We are on at least two routes that load in front of and on the side of the building

    Techie shuttle1

    Techie shuttle2

    We've talked about B'game as a long-time tech town and more recently as the site of a few start-ups; some of whom are willing to put up with sketchy power feeds from PG&E that wreak havoc on data centers that can't afford full back-up.  Having this kind of shuttle service is great exposure to B'game for the next generation of home buyers.  As the Journal article notes "they also want something (in the city) that they will be able to sell for more money in five years, when they might have to move to the suburbs for better schools."  That trend is everlasting.

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