PortlandWiFi

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Stan Hanks <stan () colventures com>
> Date: January 19, 2010 6:28:39 PM EST
> To: dave () farber net
> Subject: FW: PortlandWiFi

> The end of a long, bad road…
>
>
>
>
>
> Portland set to dismantle, donate abandoned Wi-Fi antennas
>
> By Mike Rogoway, The Oregonian
>
> January 19, 2010, 2:44PM
>
>
> <image001.jpg>Oregonian file photoNineteen months after Portland's  
> ill-fated Wi-Fi network shut down, officials are finally preparing  
> to dismantle the hundreds of Wi-Fi antennas still perched atop  
> Portland's traffic signals and streetlights.
>
> The city intends to donate the first batch of decommissioned  
> antennas to the Personal Telco Project, a volunteer group that hopes  
> to put them back in service on a limited basis with a better- 
> designed network.
>
> "We need partners to help find places to put these things," said  
> Russell Senior, Personal Telco's president. "It might be a  
> neighborhood association, or it might be someone who wants coverage  
> in a particular area."
>
> Portland commissioned a Silicon Valley startup, MetroFi, to build  
> the free network in 2005. The city hoped to provide free, high-speed  
> wireless Internet access all over town.
>
> MetroFi promised to build the network at its own expense, hoping to  
> fund the project by selling ads on its system. The privately held  
> company said it spent between $2 million and $3 million on  
> Portland's network, which launched late in 2006.
>
> Technical problems plagued the project from the start, though, and  
> residents found they were unable to reliably connect to the antennas  
> -- especially indoors.
>
> MetroFi shut the network down in June 2008 and liquidated its  
> business later that year through a legal process similar to  
> bankruptcy, leaving more than 600 antennas scattered around the city  
> -- primarily downtown and in Southeast Portland.
>
> Portland waited until the antennas were legally forfeit before  
> setting plans to take them down. City crews have already removed  
> about a dozen, according to city staffer Logan Kleier, and work  
> crews will take down about 80 more on traffic signals and other city  
> property over the next couple months.
>
> Most of the antennas are on streetlights owned by Portland General  
> Electric. Portland will hire contractors to remove those, according  
> to Kleier.
>
> MetroFi posted a $30,000 bond to cover the cost of antenna removal,  
> but technical experts estimate it will cost more than twice that to  
> take down all the antennas on utility poles.
>
> Senior, Personal Telco's president, said he explored whether the  
> antennas had any market value by tracking eBay sales. Most recently,  
> he said, a batch of five similar antennas was selling for 99 cents  
> online.
>
> "Whatever the market was for it is completely saturated and they  
> have no resale value whatsoever," he said.
>
> That doesn't mean they're useless, though. Senior inspected several  
> antennas that the city has already removed and found them in good  
> working order.
>
> "I haven't seen any corrosion or anything like that. They're weather  
> tight," he said. "Of course, there's bird droppings and stuff --  
> grime and grit from the traffic outside."
>
> While MetroFi's network proved unreliable, Senior said the antennas  
> -- manufactured by a company called SkyPilot -- are technically  
> sound. The key to making them function properly, he said, would be a  
> less ambitious network serving a smaller area.
>
> "In order to make it really work, you'd have to make it more dense,"  
> Senior said.
>
> If a collection of neighbors, a nonprofit organization or some other  
> group wanted to fund a robust broadband connection, Senior said  
> Personal Telco could deploy the old MetroFi antennas to blanket a  
> modest area with fast Web access.
>
> Alternately, Personal Telco, which has set up dozens of free Wi-Fi  
> hotspots around Portland, could carve up the old antennas and use  
> the innards to maintain other networks.
>
> "If we can't use them intact," Senior said, "we can take them apart  
> and use the parts."



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