Telecommunications veteran Martha Dennis is evangelistic when her industry's accomplishments in San Diego are the topic. Sure, everyone knows about Qualcomm, she says, but how many are aware that the encryption technology used by HBO and others to bounce signals down from satellites to cable systems is local.     And, Dennis offers, it is almost a secret that San Diego sold the first private satellite network, with the buyer being retail king Sam Walton, who used it to perfect his Wal-Mart's just-in-time system of stocking stores. When data flies around the increasingly wireless world these days, a common "packeting" standard that keeps the information readable on the destination end is homegrown. "We have consistently created leading-edge technology as the telecommunications arena has moved forward," says Dennis.     Yet all those accomplishments and more aside, telecom has been a local industry — more than 12,000 employees strong — that lacked an organization to call its own. Nowhere for execs to meet; nowhere to debate issues; nowhere to develop a lobbying agenda. Instead, the industry depended on the acumen of UCSD Connect and the San Diego Software Industry Council to sponsor the right forums, preach the right line and coddle the right venture capitalists.     Well, no more. Stocked with a select 18 founding telecom and service-provider members, the San Diego Telecom Council takes center stage this month, formally announcing its presence. Martha Dennis, left, and Vicki Marion lead the new San Diego Telecom Council Dennis, whose WaveWare is working on software to make the ubiquitous Palm Pilots and other devices even handier, is the vice president. Vicki Marion, the chief executive of Jabra, which offers a stylish headset for cell phone users, is president.     "San Diego is just a treasure trove of technology with a lot of companies that have a lot of potential to grow and be great contributors to our economy," Marion says. "We in the (telecom) community know it is a great technology base, but we are shocked and amazed about how many other people don’t."     Among the many who don’t, Marion says, are telecom talent fresh out of a university and those gainfully employed elsewhere in the nation. Frequently, recruiters say, job candidates believe San Diego is a town of few telecoms, one that leaves them little opportunity for career maneuvering if the first position doesn’t work out. "It has made us realize we have a lot of work to do to spread the word," says Marion. The council will do that by working closely with Connect, which has made recruiting for techs a top priority.     In addition, the Telecom Council will seek attention by holding quarterly forums featuring national industry figures, and the media that follow them. "We want to provide a bully pulpit for the really important issues," says Gregory McQuerter, cochairman of the council's marketing committee and owner of the McQuertergroup, a leading high-tech marketing firm. "This is where news is going to be made. This is where people are going to come and argue with each other about telecom issues on a world stage."     While the idea of an organization dedicated to telecom is not new, it took the law firm of Cooley Godward and accountancy of Ernst & Young to provide the organizational talent to make it happen. Both count, and court, local telecoms as clients.     "We saw a need to grow," says Michael Krenn, a Cooley marketing man who is doubling as the council's executive director. "We want to see more venture capitalists come down here to fund these companies. We also need to position our companies to grow to the next level. We have a great thing going on in San Diego and we shouldn't be playing second fiddle to the (Silicon) Valley. We want those people to come here rather than 500 miles to the north. It is a better place to be anyway."     The Telecom Council is modeled in part after BioCom/San Diego, a 280-member organization with substantial regional and national influence that’s driven largely by an activist 38-member board heavy with chief executives. "We are not going to be one of those groups where each quarter one of our CEOs stands up and does a self-congratulatory thing," says McQuerter. "This will be an outward-looking group whose primary focus early on will be to position San Diego as the telecom center for innovation in the world."     That telecom, where average salaries exceed $48,000, has become a leading force in San Diego’s economy is beyond dispute. The 10,000 employees at Qualcomm Inc., a company that didn’t exist 14 years ago, are living proof. But other telecoms have joined the party — the council has identified about 100 — spawned by the industry's growth (see Linkabit chart) or lured by the desire to be near Qualcomm and UCSD's Center for Wireless Communications.     To help track the jobs created by telecom and other new industries where products and services cross traditional economic classification boundaries, the San Diego Association of Governments this fall released its first workforce "clustering" report. The analysis reveals that telecom salaries are far above the region's $27,000 average and that employment growth, up 66 percent to 11,433 in the period from 1990 to 1996 tracked by Sandag, well outpaces the 4 percent rate recorded countywide during the study period. (Although 1997 figures are still being collected, the employment number is certain to rise; Qualcomm itself has added about 1,000 employees since 1996.)     "Communications is one of the very important employment clusters that grew during the recession," says Marney Cox, Sandag's director of economic planning and research. "This growth came at a time when we were seeing the defense industry employment fall off. Yet these institutions, although relatively small, grew during this time period. That is a very positive statement to make, that you have an industry that can buck trends."     For those telecoms to continue growing, fresh capital is needed. And that, too, is where the San Diego Telecom Council has set its sights. PricewaterhouseCoopers reports $34 million was pumped into telecoms by VCs in 1996, tripling to $103 million in 1997. In the first half of 1998, $106 million was invested into a sector that includes telecom and software, a 100 percent increase from the first half of 1997. Still, council members say it’s not enough. "We want to grow more Qualcomms," says Krenn.     The timing, says Marion, is right.     "We have been a hotbed for innovation and telecommunications," she says. "I think now even more people are going out and starting their own companies, using this explosion of ideas. It is a great time to be doing telecom in San Diego." A Report From The Front      The San Diego Telecom Council's first forum — "A Report from the Front: 21st Century Wireless" — is set for Dec. 7, 5:15 p.m., at the Sheraton Grande Torrey Pines. Qualcomm cofounder Irwin Jacobs will speak on third generation telecommunications, an international standards issue with significant implications for San Diego’s ownership of key wireless technology. Cost is $40. For reservations, call Michael Krenn, (619) 550-6444.

Home | Features | Info | Cover Story | About Us | Back Issues