Wireless advocates take proposal to city leaders
By Aliza Earnshaw Business Journal staff writer

Portland may already be the nation's most unwired city, but some folks would like it to be even more unwired.

Portland's claim to have more wireless "nodes," or internet-access points for those with radio cards in their laptops, is largely due to the efforts of volunteer group Personal Telco Project. But there are some in city government and business who would like to see a more organized and deliberate approach to the "unwiring" of Portland, to create an environment that will better foster business growth and attract new businesses to the area.

These folks make up a group now known as the Portland Telecommunications Steering Committee, and meet about once a month to discuss ways of making Portland more attractive to both providers of commercial wireless internet service and companies that are developing wireless technologies.

"We feel it's crucial to have wireless for economic development in Portland," said Marshall Runkel, aide to city Commissioner Erik Sten, as we sat and chatted one morning with Nigel Ballard, another member of the steering committee. Ballard, director of wireless at Matrix Networks, is also a spokesman for Personal Telco Project.

Runkel pointed out that a number of other cities have had widespread wireless access for some time now, cities as diverse as Long Beach, Calif., Auckland, New Zealand and Pittsburgh. "Wireless is on the lips of every economic development professional worth his salt," said Runkel, for its power to draw tech companies, creative-services companies, and individuals who expect constant connectivity as part of their daily lives.

"Broadband is being seen as the fifth utility," after gas, electricity, telecom and water, said Ballard. And wireless is the logical, pragmatic extension of broadband availability.

Runkel envisions wireless nodes not just in the downtown area, but all over the city and beyond, out to Gresham, Clackamas, Beaverton, Hillsboro and the other cities and suburbs that make up the greater metro area. He and others on the committee would like to create incentives to companies that are marketing wireless broadband. For example, the city could offer roof rights on city-owned buildings to help commercial wireless companies get a foothold in Portland.

It's that kind of "out-of-the-box" thinking on the city's part that can help get a widespread wireless network up and running in Portland, said Eric McLaughlin, market development manager for Intel Corp.'s broadband wireless division, and a member of the Portland Telecommunication Steering Committee.

The city's novel approach is "what I'm most excited about," said McLaughlin in a phone interview. "They are looking at ways to contribute, at what resources they have at their disposal" to enable a network.

Intel's role, said McLaughlin, is to "find out how we can help," with technical advice, with a business perspective, and by introducing city employees to others who may have an interest in the proposed network.
McLaughlin, for example, has introduced the steering committee to Cometa Networks, which has been building wireless networks in Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Washington, including one recently built in Seattle.
Intel is an investor in Cometa, which launched late last year.

Intel's ability to pull in other companies could provide a real boost to a citywide wireless network, said Ballard. "We'd like Intel Capital to persuade some of its wireless investments [startup companies] around the country move to Portland," he said. "Where better than a real-world place to test your products? And we have a lot of tech-savvy people here," many of them looking for work.

"If Intel could persuade five companies to come here, and three of them were successful, well ..." said Ballard, indicating with an expansive gesture what a boon that would be to Portland's economy.

"It's an interesting idea, but Intel isn't prepared to comment on that yet, and it hasn't been proposed to senior management," said McLaughlin of Ballard's notion that Intel could bring other companies here. And that idea "may or may not fit in with Intel Capital's mission, which is to increase business opportunities for Intel and generate a great return," added Intel Oregon spokesman Bill MacKenzie.

Another Ballard idea that does make sense to McLaughlin is to build the new wireless network for more than just commercial purposes: to equip it so that it can function as a communications network in case of an emergency, such as the massive power outage that took place in the Eastern United States last month.

Ballard proposed equipping each rooftop wireless node with a solar or wind-powered battery that would serve as redundant power in case the main power grid should go down. Besides the obvious advantage of creating an effective communications network to replace the conventional one as needed, the concept could be positioned as a national or regional security project, Ballard said. "High-end researchers at Portland State, OGI and OHSU could apply for a National Science Foundation grant, or a Department of Defense grant," he said, which would certainly help to defray the costs of building out the network.

Ballard and Runkel see a future citywide wireless network has serving multiple purposes with different tiers of service. Both men would like to see a certain amount of free public access available, in exchange for helping a commercial wireless provider get a foothold in Portland.

"We'd like to reinvigorate the Portland mythology of valuing public spaces and places" by designating that people can use the wireless access for free either in certain locations, or for a certain period of time--say, an hour--before their connection is cut off, Runkel said. There might be fewer bells and whistles in the free space--for example, a nonpaying user might be restricted from downloading big files, and limited to checking e-mail and surfing the web.

Free access is desirable for many reasons, said Ballard, and could ultimately benefit commercial providers, since free access is "the lowest rung of the ladder for many people," or the first stage to deciding to purchase an airtime subscription later on.

Have a news tip? Contact Aliza Earnshaw at 503-219-3433 or by e-mail at aearnshaw@bizjournals.com.