SDSU to Explore Making San Diego an 'Intellectual Capital'.
Bob Mazzeo, San Diego Business Journal, Special Report, Week of March 2, 1992
San Diego State University is conducting a study on ways to make San Diego County an international telecommunications and information Center.
The study is headed by John M. Eger, the Van Deerlin Professor of Communications and Public Policy at SDSU and director of the school's International Center for Communications.
"I'd like San Diego to become more than a communication hub," Eger said. "We can become a center of intellectual capital. We can be the manufacturer of new ideas and the resource for the rest of the world."
Fiber-optic technology lies at the center of his plan. Fiber optics are hair-thin plastic or glass strands through which laser-light pulses carry data. Most major cities, including San Diego, are wired with fiber optics to some degree, but much of the nation still relies on copper wires to carry telecommunications information.
Eger's study should last about two years and will be done in three stages. The city and county of San Diego are funding part of the survey, and Eger will seek other investors for some phases of the project.
SDSU researchers will first conduct a survey to learn how policy-makers in other parts of the world are planning to become telecommunication leaders via changes in regulation and policy. They will then compare the foreign programs with U.S. programs at the federal, state and local levels.
Singapore, for example, started a program under former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew to become what he called "an intelligent island" through fiber-optic wiring.
Three U.S. cities - - San Antonio, Seattle and El Paso - - are trying to position themselves as communication hubs, Eger said. San Antonio has attracted Sears' first national telecatalog center and major telecommunications operations for American Airlines, Citicorp and QVC Network.
"This part of the study should give us a sense of urgency," Eger said. "We're a little behind, not in the technology but in ways to implement it."
During the second stage, Eger said he plans to conduct interviews with local civic leaders and major users including government, private and other users who represent different segments of the economy.
"We want to get an idea of how satisfied users are now and what their future wants and needs are," Eger said. "We could do nothing. Or, we could deal with specific problems. Or, we could make the San Diego region an example for the rest of the United States and a magnet to attract business from all over the world."
Regardless of the path chosen, people will have to change the way they view telecommunications technology, Eger said.
During the industrial revolution, concrete highways were built to move goods and services. During the information revolution, information highways "built" primarily of fiber optics will move millions of bits of information, he said.
However, there is a whopping cost attached to the assumption of a leadership role, Eger said. He proposed three ways to pay for the cost of building a billion-dollar telecommunications infrastructure in San Diego:
- Use some of the billions in the Federal Highway Pension Trust Fund
- Use money gained from privatizing some government services such as bill-collection and fine-collection for traffic tickets
- Issue revenue bonds to finance building.
San Diego's sister city, Yokohama, Japan, issued about $16 billion in bonds to finance a fiber-optics communications network, he said.
Former Assistant Secretary of Commerce Clyde V. Prestowitz Jr. offered a fourth way to finance the installation of a fiber-optics network. Prestowitz headed the Economic Strategy Institute, which just completed a study entitled "The Impact of Broadband (fiber optics) Communications on the Economy and on U.S. Competitiveness." Among the study's findings: A fiber-optics network's first beneficiaries - - private business - - could fund construction of the early stages of the network.
No matter how it is funded, the vision to understand the importance of fiber optics must start at the highest leadership levels, Eger said.
"We produce more information than any other country in the world, but we lack a unified vision of how to use technology like fiber optics or supercomputers for the benefit of citizens, industry, academia and others," he said.
Vision and unified leadership have helped other countries move ahead of the United States in fiber-optics development and application, he said. Japan, for example, has already decided to spend about $250 billion between now and the year 2015 on building a fiber-optics infrastructure.
Singapore, France and Germany are developing similar programs. Yokohama plans to become what Eger calls a "teleport." Using fiber-optic links, the city plans to connect itself to cities throughout the world.
Eger said he plans to use the completed study to help increase awareness of and comfort with fiber optics in the San Diego public and private sectors. Eger said he would like to see a robust community discussion about advanced telecommunications technology.
Some San Diego civic leaders are starting to support the development of a fiber-optic infrastructure that would make the county a telecommunications leader.
"There are other countries in the world wiring for fiber optics," said County Supervisor and mayoral candidate Susan Golding. "We (in San Diego) have the opportunity to become the communication center of the North American Common Market. We have to map out a plan to wire San Diego and keep our community vibrant."
County Chief Administrative Officer Norman Hickey links the establishment of a local communications infrastructure to the area's success.
"In an earlier era, access to railroad and interstate highways determined a region's success," Hickey said. "In the future, it may be equally if not more important to know where to put our information highways."
Local leaders should study and understand the communication progress of other areas to better prepare San Diego for the future, said City Manager Jack McGrory.
"Looking at the next 10 to 20 years, we need to assess the needs of our area as best we can, and get a firmer understanding of what we should be doing as a matter of sound public policy," McGrory said.
San Diego is well-suited to become a world-class telecommunications center, Eger said.
"I think this city can capitalize on the shift in the tectonic plates of the communication infrastructure more than any other city in the world," Eger said. "San Diego is a border city, it has a Mexican and Pacific orientation, intellectual resources and is undergoing tremendous changes in its perception of what it is and what it wants to be."
Pacific Bell has already installed some fiber-optic trunk lines and has run fiber-optic lines to specific businesses in San Diego, said Terry Churchill, area vice president for the company. Cable companies are also starting to use fiber optics to provide expanded services to customers, said Ann Burr, president of Southwestern Cable TV.
However, advocates for both the phone and the cable industries argue about which industry should provide future fiber-optic line service, Eger said, and that has delayed widespread installation. Since both industries now use the technology, it would make sense for them to work together, he said.
"Clearly, the lines are blurring and I think it's inevitable that they will work together," Eger said. "They could jointly lay the fiber, join forces and create a de facto merger."