Portland, Ore., city officials announced that MetroFi beat out Earthlink Inc. and VeriLAN to supply Wi-Fi networking across the city’s 135-square miles. City officials said MetroFi won the contract “by submitting a proposal that excelled in demonstrated operational experience and its level of public benefit.”
Under terms of the agreement, Mountain View, Calif.-based MetroFi will offer both a free service and a variety of subscriber-based plans to local businesses and citizens within Portland using Wi-Fi and pre-WiMAX technologies. Free service would be supported by advertising within the Web browser, city officials said.
Last year, MetroFi launched free ad-sponsored Wi-Fi service in Sunnyvale, Calif., which has since been extended to MetroFi’s subscriber networks in Cupertino and Santa Clara, Calif. The company also won the rights to unwire Aurora, Ill., a suburb of Chicago. While MetroFi was rumored to be the frontrunner in Portland, VeriLAN was also a serious contender for the city’s contract since it has built small networks in Portland using equipment from Vivato. However, VeriLAN had proposed using dual-radio mesh technology from Cisco Systems Inc. for Portland’s citywide deployment.
MetroFi pointed out that the network will be built at no cost to the city and would supply Portland’s 540,000 residents, as well as visitors, with free wireless access at speeds of 1 megabit per second.
This partnership between MetroFi and the city represents a monumental effort to bridge the digital divide,” stated Portland City Commissioner Dan Saltzman. “Free wireless Internet access will benefit residents, businesses and the city’s many visitors.”
The city explained that it plans to use Wi-Fi connectivity to improve the efficiency of its services and to boost its competitive advantage to attract and retain businesses. The city said its services will be enhanced as public safety, public works, property inspectors and other field-based employees will be able to upload and download reports and other data on the go via wireless devices.
“Portland’s vision of utilizing the MetroFi network for affordable Internet to all residents is defining how cities partner with the private sector,” said Chuck Haas, chief executive and co-founder of MetroFi.
The city says it expects to launch citywide Wi-Fi services within one to two years.
MetroFi’s win in Portland isn’t necessarily a big loss for Earthlink or its Wi-Fi gear vendor of choice, Tropos Networks Inc., says Sam Lucero, senior analyst of Wireless Connectivity at ABI Research.
Earthlink won major municipal contracts with Philadelphia last fall and recently scored a contract win through a partnership project with Google Inc. to provide a citywide Wi-Fi network.
“We have to remember that the Wi-Fi market is very young. Earthlink is going to win some contracts, and other vendors are going to win some.”
However, the contract win gives MetroFi and its wireless mesh equipment provider, Sky Pilot, a higher profile in the Wi-Fi market.
“The whole Wi-Fi market is gaining traction,” Lucero points out. “There has to be multiple vendors and multiple service providers.”
