Last week, Portland’s grass-roots WiFi community network, Personal Telco Project, was awarded a $14,752 grant from the Meyer Memorial Trust to construct a mile-long, free WiFi network along North Mississippi Avenue.
The district, about 2 miles North of downtown Portland, will soon get free WiFi anywhere along the avenue, with nearby residences also able to connect (with a simple WiFi radio and antenna), explains Willamette Week.
The area has a mix of residents and income levels and is fairly small and contained with few tall obstructions (except many large oak trees). It is located just to the east of Interstate 5, on a small bluff overlooking downtown Portland and is developing fast with many new businesses sprouting up within the last 6 months,.
The network will radiate some 8 to 12 blocks from a rooftop antenna located centrally on Mississippi and Shaver. The high-speed connection was donated by Stephouse, a local Internet company co-founded by a 26-year-old, self-taught techie. PTP plans to start work in May and finish by year’s end.
DailyWireless editor Sam Churchill shot the above photo of PTP’s first organizing meeting at Muddy’s Coffee House, this Tuesday evening. PTP will meet weekly for the next few months, as they plan the network.
According to the Oregonian article, Meyer Memorial’s Doug Stamm said that a clincher for the trust was PTP’s ability to spread Internet access to people who typically lack it. To that end, PTP will offer seminars to teach neighbors to use and eventually maintain their free WiFi network.
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Personal Telco’s hot-spot roster has shot past 140. Not only can visitors at these hot spots use WiFi for free, Personal Telco also does not charge the cafe or bookstore owner for installation.
Personal Telco’s mission is simple: Free WiFi for the people.
“Some of what we do has been so successful because we embody the Portland spirit,” says Nigel Ballard, 47, volunteer frontman for Personal Telco and director of wireless for Matrix Networks by day. “It’s a little grass-roots and it’s free, and they know Starbucks charges, so they’re like, ‘If I go to Personal Telco hot spots, I’m kind of stickin’ it to the man.’ ”
Ballard (who coined “got wi-fi?” from the milk ads ) helped city officials see how WiFi could bring the Internet to more people — and keep Portland on the map of tech-savvy places.
A coalition, including Ballard and city and Portland Development Commission leaders, plans to seek bids this summer from private companies to build, own and manage a citywide WiFi network by some time next year.
If it works, the project would give a low-cost alternative to buying Internet access from such companies as Comcast or Qwest. Such companies could bid to create the network or contract to provide Internet services within the network. But city leaders think the heightened competition would drive down the cost.
Personal Telco, as a bunch of volunteers, doesn’t want the citywide job. But the group would keep creating free WiFi spots, since the citywide offering would come at a price.
Marshall Runkel, aide to -City Commissioner Erik Sten, a WiFi backer, says Personal Telco’s free WiFi hot spots are what pushed Portland into the top ranks of the nation’s most unwired cities.
Says Runkel, “They’re the Robin Hoods of new technology.”
While the technical details and schedule are still being determined, Aaron Baer plans an installation of the initial 3 nodes beginning in May, with operation around June 15th. The central hub of the mile-long network would be on the roof of the Native American Youth Association. It will likely use two 5 Ghz backhaul links to Metrix boxes on both the North and South ends of the business district. From there, additional nodes will branch out. As many as 8 Metrix boxes may be used which provide both integrated hotspot access and backhaul.
The project, announced last week at the Personal Telco meeting, is only just beginning. A site survey, testing of different hardware/software configuations, and working groups focusing on a variety of specialized issues are now being formed.
A 6 Mbps DSL service will feed the network from the NAYA rooftop (photos from the rooftop), located near the pointer on the Google satellite map (below).
The Google satellite map (below) show the general region being covered by the PTP “cloud”. Interstate 5 is on the left, in the middle of the satellite photo is Mississippi Ave, and on the right is Unthank Park. This is not an accurate indication of coverage area, only an illustration of the region. Actual gear and reception conditions will vary greatly within this broad area.
By the end of September, PTP hopes to have most of the network completed. Classes will be integrated into the rollout, and will aquaint users with system operation and routine maintenance. Additional features such as VoIP telephony will also be tested.
The free WiFi network happened without a great deal of lobbying or hand wringing. Michael Weinberg, representing PersonalTelco at an O’Reilly OpenSource conference in Portland last summer, talked to a Meyer representive at the booth. She suggested PTP submit a proposal. Weinberg, along with input from PTP officials Darrin Eden (President), Aaron Baer (Treasurer), Tom Higgins (Education), Don Park (Technology), and others, put together a plan.
The Boise Neighborhood (pdf) has undergone a renassaince with more than 40 businesses on the street including The Fresh Pot, North Portland Bikeworks, Sunlan Lighting, Mississippi Studios, The ReBuilding Center, ReFind Furniture, Himalayan Tea Company, Chateau Edgewater and others are listed in The Mississippi Avenue Webguide. Restaurants, live music, coffee shops, a bike shop, a nursery, furniture makers, a home rebuilding center and even two recording studios are thriving in the neighborhood.
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by the numbers Boise residents below poverty level in 1999: 28 percent Portland residents below poverty level in 1999: 13 percent Portland owner-occupied homes in 2000: 56 percent Cost of a can of graffiti remover: $7 |
The History of Mississippi Avenue includes many African-American leaders re-located after the Vanport Flood and has a progressive flavor with many attractions like Libery Hall and Unthank Park.
This project is fairly unique it that it combines a non-profit activist group with foundation money to build and maintain a community “free” cloud.
It also enables the grass roots organization to focus its energies on a large community project. How Personal Telco works though the issues involved in constructing, maintaining and managing a practical, community-run network should be instructive for other community organizations.
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It’s going to be fun.
More information is available on the PersonalTelco Web site.
