Background

The Telecom Council of Silicon Valley connects companies and individuals involved in the region's Communications Technology industry with one another for business development, collaboration, and education. Using our network, tools, framework, and events to bring together the local telecom industry's critical mass of businesses, research, ideas, capital, and human expertise – the Council is a hub for telecom professionals.

The Problem:

The telecom industry in Silicon Valley includes over 250 telecom companies, employs over 100,000 people, and attracted over $800 million in investment last year alone, significantly more than any other region in the US.

How many of these companies do you know?
Would your business benefit by knowing more of them?
How can you possibly stay on top of the mountains of telecom innovation in Silicon Valley?

The truth is that even though these companies and their key people are in the business of communications, the lines of communication between them are often closed. To address this gap, the Telecom Council of Silicon Valley was built by carriers, venture capitalists, and telecom infrastructure companies.

Role of the Telecom Council:

The Council provides the network, tools, framework, and events to bring together the industry's local critical mass of wireless and fixed telecom companies, research, ideas, capital, and human expertise to create a hub for local telecom professionals and increase their global visibility. Using interactive forums, public and private executive discussions, social events, seminars, road shows - including taking our companies abroad and touring visitors through local companies, introductions, and mentoring - in-person and online, the Council will provide a gathering place for our industry to connect, communicate, and collaborate.

History:

The Telecom Council is built around a legacy group called the Service Provider's Investment Forum that was formed informally in 2000 by Rob Hull of British Telecom, Rob Trice of Nokia, and Ian Foley formerly of Telecom Italia Mobile as a monthly lunch discussion on telecom issues, hot startups and trends they were seeing in Silicon Valley. The group grew quickly and by 2002 had over 10 carriers attend regularly, had outgrown restaurants and moved into conference rooms, and was being organized by The Kerton Group. By 2004, we added quarterly meetings to include telecom vendors which hosted Samsung, Sony, Motorola, Qualcomm, and Intel's venture groups among others. Today we have 5 Forums, including the original Service Provider Forum, and our membership has grown to include startups, VCs, infrastructure companies, and companies who are not based in Silicon Valley but work here regularly.

Our membership list is published here, and attendee lists for many of our events can be found by poking through our event archive.