dailywireless.org » Corpus Christi & Portland: Cutting The Cord

Corpus Christi & Portland: Cutting The Cord

Corpus Christi officially launched their $7 million city-owned wireless broadband network, at today’s ribbon cutting ceremony. The ceremony marks the final phase of the project, bringing coverage to more than 100 square miles of the city with multiple applications and public and private users, including residents, businesses, visitors, public safety officers, utility workers.

Tropos teamed with prime contractor Northrop Grumman to build the Wi-Fi networking system. The metro-scale Wi-Fi network provides coverage to 90% of the city’s population of about 277,000 residents across more than 100 square miles of the city.

“What started as a 20 square mile proof of concept for our meter reading project, is now growing into a 147 square mile metro-scale Wi-Fi mesh network to provide affordable broadband access for education, public safety, economic development and social equality,” said Leonard Scott, MIS Business Unit Manager, City of Corpus Christi, TX. The Automated Meter Reading system for gas and water services now includes vehicles equipped with mobile computer systems for police, fire and other public safety officers.

MetroMesh OS and Tropos Control is combined with Tropos MetroMesh routers, to allow each group of users on the wireless network to have its own virtual network with its own address space, security encryption mechanisms, access control and classes of service. It’s centrally monitored and managed using the Tropos Control element management system.

Public Technology Institute (PTI) provided early planning and consultation on the network. Northrop Grumman provided design, installation, integration and support services.

Later today, Portland Oregon will officially launch it’s initial WiFi service in downtown Portland (PortlandOnline FAQs). Today’s launch party will be held at noon in Pioneer Courthouse Square.

The initial phase of MetroFi’s network, online today, covers parts of downtown and Portland’s close-in east side. MetroFi plans to expand its service territory early next year, but hasn’t said where it will go next. The company’s contract calls on it to serve “95 percent” of the city by mid-2008. MetroFi’s approved clients should boost signal levels over a built-in WiFi card or common USB client adapter.

Last month, Microsoft announced it will partner with MetroFi on the Portland network with a location-based advertising contract and by creating a localized welcome page that displays news, weather and activities when users sign on. When Portland’s MetroFi network is built-out in another 18 months, it will be among the world’s largest advertising supported WiFi networks.
According to a story in today’s Oregonian:

Personal Telco’s work was a main inspiration for Portland’s project, according to Marshall Runkel, former aide to Portland Commissioner Erik Sten. Runkel, who was in on the early planning for Portland’s Wi-Fi project in 2003, said the city wanted to create a cheap alternative to Web access from phone and cable companies. Early plans called for some level of free access, Runkel said, though no one knew then how it could be done across Portland.
“Having a vendor in town to build a wireless network for the city with the backing of Microsoft, that’s a home run,” he said.
But Runkel, who now works for online advocacy group One Economy Corp., said the network is incomplete without tools to help people put it to work. Still needed, he said, is a program to put computers in the hands of low-income residents, and online resources to help them learn how to use the network to find work and educational opportunities.
“We’re getting a C right now, and to really get an A, I think we have to think of all these other things,” he said.

The Oregonian’s Mike Rogoway has pictures of the Cable Cutting (below) with Personal Telco’s Don Park (and DailyWireless co-founder) in the center, talking with Portland CTO Matt Lampe and EasyStreet CEO Rich Bader.

DailyWireless attended the ceremony and interviewed a variety of people. We’ll post the MP3s shortly. Meanwhile, here’s a Flickr Slide Show of the Cable Cutting ceremony.