Portland, Ore. Restarts Wireless Service

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Jul 14, 2008, News Report and Wayne Hanson

Portland, Ore., which contracted with MetroFi in 2006 to roll out a free Wi-Fi Network, saw the network shut down as of June 30 this year. But according to a release from Stephouse Networks, a Portland-based ISP, there's a new network in town, covering five square miles of the downtown area and two square miles of North Portland's St. Johns area. Coverage includes both Wi-Fi and WiMAX service, through a deployment of Proxim equipment.

"As we've seen, the free municipal Wi-Fi business model just doesn't work," said Tyler Booth, president of Stephouse Networks. "Often times users just need to connect for a few minutes per day -- to find a map on their iPhone, to locate a local business, read the news on their lunch break, etc. -- so we give everyone one free hour per day, up to 10 hours per month, to do whatever they need to do. And for users who need more than that, we offer a very reasonable monthly rate."

Comments

By The Tech on Jul 16, 2008

I don't think it talks about using broadband on powerlines or anything like that. It's WiFi and WiMAX.

By Anonymous on Jul 15, 2008

One very important thing you all need to remember is, the FCC just lost a major court case with the HAM RADIO GUYS and HAM RADIO WON !! Broad band on the power line from now on MUST not be on any of the frequencies we ham radio guys use. In the past that signal on the power lines covered some of the main frequencies we use for emergency communications. You can't do that When the twin towers went down, WHO do you think it was that provided the emergency communications then needed ? HAM RADIO. You guys have NO IDEA just how important ham radio is in an emergency. WA�-AUU for 55 years, Ernie

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