Life… and a Little About Marketing

Wi-Fi network specialist MetroFi has been selected by the City of Portland to deliver and operate a citywide Wi-Fi network capable of providing free wireless internet access and substantially improved public services to Portland residents.

The Portland City Counsel voted unanimously Wednesday to proceed with the project that will grant free internet access to 95% of the City.

Metrofi hopes to make money on the deal by selling wireless to the city and through 1 inch ads that appear {who knows in what form} when people using the wireless network access the internet.

The whole project will cost somewhere around $10 million dollars and could end up at $16 million if the city of Portland decided to expand the free wifi out to the out lying areas of portland.

Under the new deal, the City of Portland will be blanketed by a Wi-Fi mesh network giving all residents and visitors wireless access to a 1Mbps internet connection at no cost.

The city is also planning to use the connection to implement public utilities such as smart parking meters. Public safety, public works, property inspectors and other field-based employees will also have the ability to wirelessly download and upload reports and data from the field. In addition, the city says that public safety will be greatly enhanced by the ability to wirelessly retrieve large amounts of data at broadband speeds.

“We are proud to partner with MetroFi in this effort to blanket the city of Portland with wireless internet access,” said Portland’s mayor, Tom Potter.

“MetroFi has demonstrated its commitment to bridging the digital divide by offering both free and low-cost alternatives for broadband access on an open provider network. Additionally, I look forward to realizing the benefits of wireless technology and have high hopes for Portland’s ability to use it to streamline city services and enhance public safety communications.”

According to the agenda users will be able to surf and download at speeds of 1 megabit per second and upload speed will approx. 256 kilobits per second. Much faster than dial up but a bit slower than your usual DSL or cable connections.

- G