Construction of Portland’s wireless Internet cloud has yet to begin, but already the project has encountered two notable glitches, notes the Oregonian
State utility rules are holding up construction of the network by complicating talks between Portland General Electric and the city’s wireless contractor, MetroFi, as they negotiate power rates for Wi-Fi antennas.
Separately, the city now says it probably won’t be able to use the wireless network to collect data from automated parking meters, which had been one of the prime financial benefits touted by the project’s backers.
Work hasn’t begun because there is no agreement on what PGE will charge MetroFi for the electricity to power its Wi-Fi antennas.
In other cities, electric utilities have stopped Wi-Fi projects by setting rates higher than Wi-Fi contractors would pay. That’s not the case in Portland, according to the city and PGE, because there is general agreement on rates.
“The conversations to date have not suggested a huge problem in this area,” said PGE spokesman Steve Corson.
If it’s not possible to craft a deal within the existing regulatory framework, Corson said, PGE and MetroFi will have to ask the Oregon Public Utility Commission to adjust the rules.
Cutting the cost of operating the city’s automated parking meters is one of Portland’s key goals for the Wi-Fi project. The city’s contract with MetroFi provides for parking meter access at $9 a month, compared with roughly $15 a month the city now pays to transmit credit card information using cell phone networks and other proprietary systems.
But Kleier said the city’s two parking meter vendors, who were initially optimistic about Wi-Fi networking, now say Wi-Fi would draw too much power from the meters. The meter makers are trying to overcome the hurdle, according to Kleier, but haven’t yet.
“It’s something that still is on the table,” he said. “The technology needs to catch up.”
While the city may only pay $15/month for their wireless Mobitex service (which is going away), it’s not the only cost. Credit-card information is currently updated in bursts several times daily. Because it’s not real-time, additional Visa fees are charged to the city. That brings actual cost to the city closer to $35/month, according to Portland’s CTO Matt Lampe. Real-time WiFi could lower that cost by eliminating the additional Visa fees.
Power always seemed a big concern. The free-standing meters don’t have access to AC power; a 10W solar panel powers Portland’s electronic parking meters. The power budget for Mobitex is low, since it is mostly off. But WiFi clients are mostly on. However, low-power WiFi chips (like the ones made by Marvell) are now embedded inside cellphones and Marvel’s low power WiFi chip will be embedded in MIT’s $100 laptop. Parkeon has used WiFi to link their devices to a central server. That seems to indicate that WiFi may soon be a viable alternative to Parkeon’s standard GPRS/EDGE solution.
Houston wants to replace their 800,000 meters with some 1500 “smart meters” and plans to use WiFi to connect them. Seven vendors, ACS, Cale Systems, Clancy Services, Parkeon, Rhino and SGR Controls are bidding for the contract. Houston’s City Council approved a $15 million deal with Affiliated Computer Services in early April 2006 for a network of 1,500 multiple-space meters — 750 of which will be installed this summer — to handle 2,300 downtown parking spaces.
Portland has some 1,000 Electronic Parking Meters. Portland uses Parkeon. Currently they pay some $30/mo in fees. That includes the wireless CPDP connection (updated several times daily), along with additional fees from Visa for non real-time service. So real-time WiFi connections might save $20/month per meter or $20,000/month or about $240,000/year.
Related DailyWireless articles include; Houston Gets 5 Proposals Transportation’s Big Show, Big City WiFi Clouds, Tracking Transit, City Clouds Save Money, CDPD Gets Arrested and MAN with a Plan.
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