Silicon Valley is still where businesses of all levels want to be. If you haven’t heard of it (and you probably should have), it is located in the southern region of San Francisco in Northern California. It began in the 1980s with silicon chip inventors and manufacturers (hence the name) and has grown to include innovative technology companies to become the famous place it is today. Home to thousands of companies, the name is used to refer to Santa Clara Valley, but now refers to a much wider geographical area and is used as a metonym for the technological industry in America.
It is home to some famous tech companies such as Apple, eBay, Google, Intel and SanDisk. Many telecom companies are also based there, including British Telecom or BT, HTC, Orange and Vodafone. The telecom industry in the valley includes over 500 companies and employs over 100,000 people, and attracted more investment than any other industry in the US. This makes the Silicon Valley an exciting place to be, from developing mobile applications to optic fibers, innovation is still striven for.
The Telecom Council of Silicon Valley was created to enhance communication and encourage innovation by the telecom companies within it. There are various forums within the council, including a mobile forum, a service provider forum and an entrepreneur forum. It has created a forum for industry professionals and companies as a whole to share their research, ideas and human expertise within the industry so innovation and advancements are something to strive for.
Comparing Silicon Valley to Other Tech Hubs
A recent report found that start-up companies in the valley create a third more capital than the same kinds of companies in different geographical areas. However, there are other areas that are catching up to the innovation hub that is Silicon Valley, and beginning to challenge its dominance.
The stability and success that the Silicon Valley seems to offer is emphasized further through the latest news about the Indian telecom debacle. Indian telecom services are suffering a lack of investment and therefore innovation, as a series of scandals has created uncertainty and mistrust. Until a couple of years ago telecom was one of the most promising industries that India had. Uncertainties arose when the Supreme Court in February this year ordered cancellation of all 122 licenses issued in 2008 by the then communications minister A. Raja. Only 22 of the licenses were allocated, and the companies that did have therefore suffered unfairly because of this cancellation. There has been a call for the stabilization and clarity of policies in India to reinstate the industry as one worth investing in. The fears otherwise is that innovation in the industry will die.
This kind of climate doesn’t seem to affect the Silicon Valley, even amidst economic downturn and natural disasters, which is why it remains the place to start-up a technological or telecoms operation.
About the author: Darcie Hewitt-Dudding writes for Microcare Phone Systems, a UK company that provide efficient business communication solutions.
