Silicon tally

San Jose. Austin, Texas. Seattle. Phoenix. Boston. Las Vegas. Raleigh, N.C. Boise, Idaho. Washington. Atlanta. Portland, Ore. Denver. Grand Rapids, Mich.

They aren't pit stops along Route 66, and they're not among the frequent ports for a puddle-jumping discount airline. What they are: Some of the new boomtowns built upon, or in large part influenced by, surging high-tech industries. Recent media coverage has branded them next generation Silicon Valleys, or at least great business-friendly towns in which to plant the seeds for the next Silicon Valley.

In truth, the recent press is only the latest example of the long-term obsession with that magical and mythical moniker. Industry observers and pundits, and even regions and cities themselves, have pushed into the spotlight such stepchildren as Silicon Gulch (Dallas/Ft. Worth/Austin), Silicon Range (Austin again), Silicon Sound (Seattle), Silicon Forest (Seattle again or anywhere in the northwest), Silicon Alley (New Jersey/New York), Silicon Prairie (Chicago), Silicorn Valley (Iowa City/Des Moines), Silicon Valley South (Atlanta) and Silicon Valley North (Ottawa/Toronto, Ontario).

Curiously, I don't think anyone has tabbed Las Vegas or Phoenix as Silicon Death Valley, and my own idea to call Chicago the Silicon Stockyards never quite took hold.

In any event, most of these next generation Silicon Valleys do have a few things in common with the original, such as strong area universities, blockbuster housing markets, scores of talented professionals and entrepreneurs.

Something else many of the boomtowns have in common has been somewhat overlooked. Unlike the original, next generation Silicon Valleys will not be entirely built on the microchip. (Kind of takes all the fun out of our name game, doesn't it?) Certainly, locales such as Austin, Phoenix, Seattle and Las Vegas have been home to extremely significant microchip advances. However, telecommunications, specifically the strong market for telecom equipment and the burgeoning competitive carrier industry, are chief instigators in the development of the new boomtowns.

Of course, most telecom equipment advances would be nothing without those little chipsets, but telecom at large is having a broader and more direct impact on the fortunes of these communities.

Emergence of new carrier organizations in places such as Austin, Boston, Chicago, Seattle and the Washington area has created many new jobs and drawn more technology expertise to these cities. Also, many of the boomtowns have been at the top of the list for competitive carriers looking to enter new markets.

Those customers are among the first users to experience better pricing and advanced services based on newer technology, such as dense wavelength division multiplexing and Internet protocol switching.

In addition, vendors in these cities are repositioning themselves for new market opportunities by investing more in sales and marketing. They are also giving birth to new companies and further economic growth in their regions when they engage in joint ventures, create spin-offs or are forced to accept the resignations of key individuals who want to pursue entrepreneurial telecom interests.

Ultimately, the overall atmosphere created by such trends is something that lures new companies, new people and even other new industries to these areas from other regions.

So, what's the message? If you want a hot job doing cutting-edge telecom work in a hip town, you should move to these cities?

That is one way of taking it. However, that suggests that the Silicon Valleys hold the secret recipe for great achievement in telecom. This much is true:

They are pioneer outposts for the already substantial and growing segment of the economy based on high-tech development. It is an economy that is heavily characterized by non-traditional companies with non-traditional methods of doing business. Telecom companies and telecom-related developments are increasingly at the forefront of this economy.

The good news is that you do not have to live in any of the Silicon Valleys to be a part of it. However, you do have to think progressively and act ambitiously. That means taking some chances, which isn't second-nature to some people in the telecom industry. The boomtowns may be born more of risk-taking than the socio-economic and technological change that follows.