Portland’s municipal wireless contractor MetroFi and power company Portland General Electric have received changes to the state regulations that had blocked their pending agreement on power for the antennas, reports The Oregonian.
The Oregon Public Utility Commission approved new rules to govern the electricity supply for Wi-Fi antennas that will perch atop light poles and streetlights around Portland. A change in the state code was apparently necessary to achieve the flat rate structure that MetroFi desired. The new state rules approved Tuesday take effect Oct. 2.
Portland hired MetroFi in June to build a Wi-Fi network covering 95 percent of the city. Internet downloads will be about 1 megabit per second, on par with many DSL connections but only about a sixth as fast as top-end DSL and cable service.
MetroFi plans to begin construction soon after, according to the city, and the first phase of the network is due to be online early next year downtown and in Portland’s central eastside neighborhoods. Plans call for covering “95 percent” of the city by mid-2008.
Public money won’t be used to build the network, but Portland’s contract with MetroFi gives the city the option to buy up to $16 million in services over five years for outlying city offices and other places where wired Web access isn’t practical.
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