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San Leandro Commercial Broadband Strategy One example is the approach, described above, that the City of San Leandro took to a request by AT &T to place more than 100 utility boxes on public right of ways for its Project Lightspeed system upgrade. Although the project was out of the ordinary, standard practices were adapted to the task. The result was a well defined process that minimized uncertainty and efficiently provided answers to the applicant while safeguarding City interests such as public safety and aesthetics. One area where the City's planning process specifically addresses broadband - related issues involves the review and approval of wireless towers, antennas and related facilities. The City makes a clear distinction between smaller broadband links installed by end users and larger carrier sites that serve the general public, and treats both types of facilities appropriately. The City's policy tends to encourage colocation by multiple carriers and does not impose any significant obstacles to expanding or upgrading wireless broadband availability, while still safeguarding legitimate City concerns such as public safety and aesthetics. Many of the policy areas where the City meets or exceeds statewide benchmarks involve construction, maintenance and upgrading of broadband facilities, providing the most basic, and consequently most important, support for expansion of commercial broadband access. 4.4. Recommendation 1: formalize broadband - friendly policies The City of San Leandro's existing policy and practices regarding development of broadband facilities, monitoring broadband availability and issues, and working with telecommunications providers are competitive advantages. Formalizing these practices and promoting them to business relocation and expansion prospects, real estate developers and telecommunications companies will allow the City to maximize the opportunities that those advantages create. The process followed by the City in approving AT &T's Project Lightspeed upgrade should be considered to be a model for future broadband projects and, along with its current wireless facilities policy and expeditious review process, communicated to service providers as a way of capitalizing on these broadband friendly competitive advantages. The same should be done with the City's practice of making public facilities available to service providers on a non - discri minatory basis,with its ongoing proactive broadband development efforts within the local business community, with prospective new businesses and with current and prospective telecommunications service providers. 16 July 2012 TellusVenture Associates Page 23