The city of Portland has received at least 6 proposals (pdf) for Unwire Portland. Bidders will be evaluated based on the “public benefit” their work would provide, the technology they plan to use, their proposed fees, business plans and ability to follow through. The network is expected to cost between $15 million and $30 million to build, reports The Oregonian.
A Bureau of Purchasing email shows a total of six submitters. The companies include:
- Earthlink. Expected to propose similar architecture to their winning Philadelphia proposal using Tropos mesh gear and Motorola’s Canopy for backhaul.
- MetroFi: Uses SkyPilot gear for a Wi-Fi metro mesh architecture. Their deployments (case study) use 20-25 SkyPilot mesh nodes per square mile in Cupertino and Santa Clara networks.
- MobilePro: The Bethesda, Maryland company has been involved in several municipal projects including ShreveNet in Shreveport, Louisiana with operations in both Louisiana and Texas. MobilePro is using Strix mesh in Tempe.
- U.S. Internet: Minneapolis chose both U.S. Internet and Earthlink as finalists for their city cloud. Minneapolis (pop. 382,618) is planning a wireless/fiber network throughout the City’s 58.7 square mile area. For Minneapolis, they proposed a combination of systems: Wi-Fi for most users, a separate network for public safety, and WiMax for businesses and residences.
- VeriLAN: Built metropolitan wireless installations in Portland in 2003 using “pre-WiMax” and Vivato gear and elsewhere, along with event wireless coverage for IEEE. Their proposal is expected to use Cisco’s (still unannounced) mesh WiFi/4.9 GHz gear.
- Winfield Wireless: A pioneer Portland wireless ISP with a presense on the KGON tower (overlooking Portland). Connected the Hilton and Embassy suites hotels for IEEE meeting in July, 2004.
Also interesting is who did NOT submit a proposal (but attended Unwired Portland Meetings). The list of non-bidders apparently includes:
Further details of the proposals are not yet known.
Project Schedule |
|
| Issuance of Request for Proposal (RFP) | September 16, 2005 |
| Mandatory Pre-Proposal Conference |
September 26, 2005, 2:00 to 4:00pm
|
| Last Day to Submit written questions |
October 3, 2005, 4:00pm
|
| Response to written questions and issuance of any Addenda |
October 12, 2005
|
| Written proposals due |
October 31, 2005, 4:00pm
|
| Interviews/Oral Presentations, if deemed necessary |
Week of November 28, 2005
|
| Evaluation Committee recommendation |
Completed by December 16, 2005
|
| Contract negotiation with Successful Proposer |
Completed by January 13, 2006
|
| Contract Award and Notice to Proceed |
Completed by February 10, 2006
|
The RFP was developed by the city of Portland, TriMet, Portland Public Schools and the Unwire Portland Steering Committee, which consists of representatives from the mayor’s office, the offices of Commissioners Sam Adams and Dan Saltzman, city of Portland Bureau of Technology Services, Alliance of Portland Neighborhood Business Associations and the Portland Development Commission.
The footprint for Portland’s Phase I cloud, as outlined in the RFP, covers an area of about 1600 square blocks that are currently well served by broadband providers. The Unwire Portland committee expects that this area will be covered by mid-2006, 6 months after the project start date.
DailyWireless was told that Kevin Yin of the Bureau of Purchases, who is managing the proposals for the department was away from the office and will look at the proposals tomorrow to see if they conform to basic requirements. A full list of the submitters should then be posted in 24 hours at Unwire Portland.
Related DailyWireless articles include; Minneapolis Chooses Two, The Woz Joins VeriLAN, Anaheim for Earthlink, World’s Largest WiFi Cloud, San Francisco RFI Posted, Philly Chooses Earthlink, Philly Picks TWO Winners, Google: Free City-Wide WiFi, Google’s Location-Based Ads, Unwired Portland & PTP Meetup, Unwired Portland Attendee List, Unwired Portland Meetup, Portland Cloud RFP, Portland Cloud Meeting, Portland Approves Wireless Cloud RFP, Portland’s Free Cloud, Skypilot Meshes WiMax, Belair Ships Small Mesh AP, Belair + PacketHop, The Wireless Athens Cloud, High Noon for City Clouds, Mesh Standards?, Taipei’s Mesh Cloud, Scaling City-wide Mesh, NASA/Nortel Mesh Shuttle Coverage, Securing the Cloud, Canadian WiMax Network, Battle at 3 Dot 5, Clearwire Buys More 2.6 Ghz, Clearwire: West Coast Ho!, Intel WiMax Basestation, 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, First Commercial Pre-WiMax Switched On, Living Under A Cloud, by Nigel Ballard, 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
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