“We will unleash a level of creative innovation we can’t imagine”, enthused City Commissioner Sam Adams at Portland, Oregon’s Unwired Portland Workshop, Thursday evening. The Commissioner gave anecdotal examples of local businesses that may benefit from broadband wireless everywhere. But neither commission members nor the general public, could answer the big question; if they build it, will it succeed?
Portland does not yet have an RFP. That will come in late August, according to Rashid Ahmed, Sr. Project Coordinator, at the Portland Development Commission.
Portland’s “city cloud” approach is different than the ground breaking Wireless Philadelphia plan. While Philadelphia plans to run their “cloud” through a 501(c)3 corporation and get grants from a variety of philanthropic organization, the city’s CTO Matt Lampe explained that Portland could not depend on deep pocket philanthropic contributions.
Instead, a private organization will be chosen to run (and fund) the system. The operator will provide “open access” to competing providers and may also choose to be a provider themselves.
Portland will provide anchor tenants. They include services for the City of Portland (electronic parking meters and roaming city workers), Tri-Met (information kiosks, cameras and personnel), and Portland Public Schools (for students, teachers, administrators and parents).
The city would also supply access to rooftops and public rights of way at little or no cost for antennas and other gear.
About 100 people attended the evening meeting, which featured an introduction by Commissioner Adams, a PowerPoint by Portland’s Chief Technical Officer, Matt Lampe, a question and answer session and breakaway sessions to talk individually with representatives from the anchor tenants and the Committee Members.
There was not much “real” news at this meeting. The RFP won’t be out until late August, but we thought these photos from Lampe’s PowerPoint might be interesting.
Among the attendees at the meeting were Fred Ziari, president and CEO of EZ Wireless (right) and Steve Davey (left), their senior wireless engineer. EZ Wireless is notable because they built the largest WiFi Cloud in the country in Eastern Oregon, covering some 700 square miles (see: Fred Ziari’s 700 Mile Cloud).
Davey explained that their company has been working with Homeland Security officials on a variety of projects and exercises around the country, involving remote cameras, 4.9 Ghz public service band, and a variety of mobile platforms and applications, many of which are custom designed by EZ Wireless.
The meeting was helpful in bringing a variety of interests together to become informed and discuss the issues surrounding a wireless cloud. Representatives from the general public may also be involved in the evaluation, promised committee members.
Bills in Congress and the Oregon Legislature this year have taken aim at efforts by Portland and other cities to build wireless Internet networks. The efforts, backed by the telecommunications industry, are probably too little and too late to stop Portland, according to the Portland Tribune.
When a private company has to compete with a government entity, it tips the balance in favor of the government, said Brant Wolf of the Oregon Telecommunications Association, a telecom trade association similar to the Oregon Cable Association.
Some critics of Portland’s Cloud Proposal have expressed skepticism that it will pencil out or even work effectively. They question whether Portland’s “anchor tenants” offer a firm enough committment to remain long-term clients.
Competing cellular providers claim their high-speed EV-DO or HSPDA data services can deliver broadband wireless via the private sector. Right now. They say involvement by cities in public telecommuncations infrastructure is unfair and unwise. Alternatives such as Clearwire and Sprint/Nextel may come online with Mobile WiMax sometime in 2007. Paul Allen’s Vulcan Ventures owns 700 Mhz in Portland and throughout Oregon, and might offer 700 Mhz service after 2008.
The city of Portland aims to lower their telecommunications bill. As one example, Portland’s city cloud proponents site the city’s 1,000 electronic parking meters. Currently they use cellular-based CDPD radios costing more that $30/month for each connection. A WiFi alternative might lower taxpayer costs by hundreds of thousands of dollars every year, argue “cloud” proponents.
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Questions will remain until a document is available to view. The draft RFP is essentially done, according to Rashid Ahmed, and is going through the legal and procedural steps before publication.
Related DailyWireless stories include: Portland Cloud Meeting Tomorrow, Portland Approves Wireless Cloud RFP, Portland’s Free Cloud, Cable vs Digital Cities: Championship Fight, City Clouds Save Money, Portland Cloud Updater, Portland Wireless Cloud Announced, Proxim’s 700 Mile Cloud, Fred Ziari’s 700 Mile Cloud, NYC Public WiFi, Minneapolis WiFi Cloud, NW Wireless Conference, VeriLAN Tests Prototype Outdoor Vivato, Free Content on VeriLAN’s City Cloud, First Commercial 802.16a Switched On, Living Under A Cloud, by Nigel Ballard, First Commercial 802.16a Switched On, Duopoly Laws, Heartland Says The World Is Round, DailyWireless Testifies for Muni Broadband, Philly’s Fight, Verizon Blocking Philly Cloud?, the Philadelphia Cloud, Low Income Housing Connection, Digital Divide Solutions, SBC Fiber Plans, Taipei Unwired, Mobile WiMax Chips, The Smartest Guy in the Room, The 700 MHz Club, 700 MHz in Portland, Unwired Countries, and the DailyWireless City Cloud Report
