Unwire PDX Watch

AccessNets’08 Paper Final

Posted by Caleb Phillips on 22 August 2008

This is a follow up on an earlier post where I announced that an academic paper based on our coverage testing methodology had been accepted to appear at the Third International Conference on Access Networks in Las Vegas, Nevada (October 15-17, 2008). The final camera-ready version is complete and can be downloaded here. Our hope is that this venue will give further exposure to the methodology, both in academic and industry circles, and thereby instigate some thought on the nature of coverage testing and communicating performance expectations.

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MetroFi can’t even fail without screwing it up!

Posted by Russell Senior on 2 August 2008

In the June 20 Oregonian, Mike Rogoway reported that:

“The company told city officials this week that it plans to start taking down those antennas July 1 and complete the work by July 30.”

However, there is no evidence as of today, August 1, that any SkyPilots or any other gear has been removed from the public right-of-way.

Little birds have told me that MetroFi was looking to have the gear taken down by contractors for what seems like a ridiculously small amount of money, $30/device. That’s less than the $50/device that they have posted as bond in case the company goes out of business before the gear is removed.

Section 8.25.6 of the agreement with the city stipulates:

“Removal of Equipment. In the event that the City and Licensee are not able to achieve the retention of operations of the System, the City may require the removal of System components from City owned poles within the Municipal Right of Way and Municipal Facilities, as well as third parties’ properties, in accordance with ORS 221.470. Licensee shall maintain a reserve account or bond sufficient to complete this removal, with the instrument approved by the City, to ensure that in the event of bankruptcy or other dissolution of Licensee that the City has access to funds necessary to complete such removal. Initial reserve amount shall be $5,000 per 100 facilities mounted within the Municipal Right of Way.
Should removal be required, the City retains, at its sole discretion, the right to take ownership of the assets that remain in the Municipal Right of Way in lieu of involving the security instrument pursuant to ORS 221.470.”

Reviewing ORS 221.470, we find this:

“Removal of structures on expiration of grant or franchise. (1) All property and materials (including poles, posts, towers, wires, conduits, mains, pipes, rails, tracks, ties, railways, pole lines, telegraph, telephone or electric transmission lines, or structures or equipment of any kind) placed in, on, upon, over, under or beneath any public highway, street or alley of this state or municipal corporation, under or by virtue of any grant, privilege or franchise, shall be removed by the owners or owner of the same within one year after the expiration of the grant, privilege or franchise, which permitted the erection or installation of the same, unless further time is granted by the municipal corporation having authority so to do.

(2) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (3) of this section, if all the property and materials referred to in subsection (1) of this section are not removed within one year after the termination or expiration of the grant, privilege or franchise or such further time as may be granted by the state or municipal corporation, all and every part thereof shall be forfeited and escheated to the state or municipal corporation wherein situated.

(3) The state or municipal corporation may notify the owner of the property and materials referred to in subsection (2) of this section that it waives forfeiture and escheat under subsection (2) of this section and may thereafter compel removal of such property and materials from the public highways, streets and alleys and restoration of the public highways, streets and alleys and may maintain court suit to require such removal and restoration by the owner or the payment of the cost thereof by the owner. [Amended by 1957 c.136 §1]”

So, I guess the clock is ticking. It’ll be interesting to see if they can manage to beat the buzzer. They only have a year.

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A 501 Tech Club Event from NTEN

Posted by Russell Senior on 18 July 2008

NTEN is putting on a panel session at the end of the month relating to wifi in Portland. The MetroFi experience will be included.

Join with members of the Personal Telco Project, NTEN and the City of Portland to learn more about and discuss the history, progress, and future of municipal wireless. This is a great opportunity to hear about efforts like MetroFi and Personal Telco, as well as how you can get involved in improving your neighborhood’s networks.

DATE: Thursday, July 31st
TIME: 6 pm - 8 pm
PLACE: Lucky Lab Brew Hall (SE Hawthorne)

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“I feel happy! I feel happy!”

Posted by Russell Senior on 5 July 2008

On the evening of July 2, we took a little loop drive around the heart of what had been the MetroFi network. We discovered that, indeed, the network was largely gone, at least as visible in the 2.4GHz band. We did find an exception, however, when we drove along a promontory on the shoulder of Mt Tabor. We saw one SkyPilot still beaconing MetroFi-Free/MetroFi-Premium. We consulted our listing of BSSID’s to identify where it was located, and then today as we were driving nearby, we stopped and succeeed in associating and connecting to the internet through it.

So even though it’ll be stone dead in a moment, if you want to get your free tubes from MetroFi-Free a little bit longer, there’s at least one place in town to do it.

“I think I’ll go for a walk!”

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MetroFi network has been turned off

Posted by Russell Senior on 1 July 2008

Apparently sometime around 5pm this afternoon, the MetroFi network was turned off, sources say. For the last few weeks, the ads and splash page had been turned off, and today, a day later than they’d indicated to the press, the MetroFi-Free and MetroFi-Premium SSIDs apparently got switched off. We are going to make an brief foray this evening to confirm, but it looks like the MetroFi experiment in Portland is over.

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Unwired PDX Watch seeks MetroFi insiders for explanation

Posted by Russell Senior on 25 June 2008

For the last year or so, in furtherance of the educational mission of the Personal Telco Project as well as to satisfy our own curiosities, we have been seeking insights and explanations of some of the engineering decisions made by MetroFi. We requested speakers for the Personal Telco Project’s monthly meetings from MetroFi via Denise Graab. Regrettably, despite some promises, we never got any followup, perhaps because Denise left the company last autumn. We remain interested in understanding what went right, what went wrong, and the perspective of the network engineers at MetroFi. We had the good fortune to have an extended conversation with technical people from SkyPilot Networks shortly after our Proof of Concept study, and we would certainly welcome similar interactions with those at (or formerly at) MetroFi. If anyone is willing to share their experience and perspective, please get in touch with us and perhaps we can set something up. Thanks!

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Our Methods to Appear at AccessNets

Posted by Caleb Phillips on 21 June 2008

Research based on the performance and coverage testing methods developed for our testing of the MetroFi Proof-of-Concept network in Portland has been accepted for publication at AccessNets 2008 which will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada in October. The paper is titled “Robust Coverage and Performance Testing for Large-Area Wireless Networks” and is co-authored with professors Dirk Grunwald and Douglas Sicker at the University of Colorado at Boulder. We’ll post a copy of the final camera-ready manuscript here, as soon as it is ready (presumably sometime in July).

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MetroFi schedules Portland shutoff for June 30

Posted by Russell Senior on 20 June 2008

The Portland Business Journal, Associated Press and the Oregonian are reporting that, according to officials at the City of Portland, MetroFi plans to turn off their Portland network on June 30th. The equipment is to be removed during the month of July.

Meanwhile, the Personal Telco Project is reminding people that there are still an amazing number of wifi networks in Portland (about 100 times what MetroFi was ever going to deploy), and that ordinary citizens and businesses can help make ubiquitous free wifi a reality by participating in its provision.

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MetroFi Network is for Sale

Posted by Caleb Phillips on 16 May 2008

As reported on wifinetnews.com, muniwireless.com, and the oregonian blog, MetroFi is throwing in the towel and has suggested that the city of Portland purchase the network as is. There is an interesting discussion about this on the Personal Telco mailing list. Here is the letter sent to Logan Kleier from MetroFi president Chuck Haas:

May 13, 2008 Mr. Logan Kleier City of Portland 1120 SW Fifth Ave, Suite 450 Portland, Oregon 97204

Logan,

I am writing today to request a call or meeting with you to discuss the City of Portland network. MetroFi's goal was to have the City of Portland network producing enough revenue to cover expenses and even with the roll out of Microsoft SideGuide, the best advertising platform we have for Wi-Fi revenue generation, we are still not covering our costs for network operation and maintenance. As I discussed on the phone, MetroFi has three options to consider. The first is for the City to purchase the network from MetroFi; the second is to sell the network to a 3rd party; the third is to shut the network down.

The City of Portland network is comprised of 598 access points and is used by approximately 16,000 residents and visitors per month. April had 306,000 hours of use. Our operating expenses include pole attachment fees and power, the BAP locations, backhaul transport via microwave the Pittock Building and Internet transit. These expenses are approximately $15,000 per month. To purchase the network, we would propose a price of $1,500 per AP or $894,000. MetroFi would train the City on the network operation and transfer assets, spare equipment and knowledge to the City. MetroFi is also discussing network purchase with other prospective buyers, but there is no assurance that we can complete a sale.

The third option is to remove the equipment, beginning in June 2008. I understand this is a lot to digest, which is why I have requested a meeting or call to allow us to discuss these options in more detail. We are looking to understand the city's position as soon as possible as our intent is to begin network shut-down and equipment removal the by the end of June if we do not have a buyer.

Please let me know a convenient time to meet and discuss these options with you at your first opportunity.

Sincerely,

Chuck Haas President & CEO

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Reporters sometimes get basic facts wrong

Posted by Russell Senior on 22 March 2008

The New York Times is running a story that mentions the Portland wifi network operated by MetroFi in passing. Unless something happened recently without us knowing about it, the story gets things substantially wrong. Here’s what Ian Urbina wrote, in part:

In Tempe, Ariz., and Portland, Ore., for example, hundreds of subscribers have found themselves suddenly without service as providers have cut their losses and either abandoned their networks or stopped expanding capacity.

Urbina, or to be fair perhaps his editors under pressures of space, conflate the Tempe, Arizona and Portland networks into a single sentence and consequently propagate an inaccurate perception of what is happening in Portland. First of all, as we understand it, MetroFi Portland has very few paying subscribers. According to Logan Kleier as of a few months ago, certainly not hundreds. The vast majority of its users utilize the advertising-supported service. Second of all, MetroFi has not (again, unless something has happened very recently) abandoned their network, suddenly cutting off service. There are plenty of places in Portland without service, and without any prospect of service, and even places “with” service might not actually have service. But that is different.

The MetroFi Portland network has substantially stalled. The outward signs provide no obvious prospect it will ever be finished as originally envisioned. However, hundreds of subscribers in Portland have not suddenly lost service they had previously, as far as we can tell.

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AccessNets’08 Paper Final

MetroFi can’t even fail without screwing it up!

A 501 Tech Club Event from NTEN

“I feel happy! I feel happy!”

MetroFi network has been turned off

Unwired PDX Watch seeks MetroFi insiders for explanation

Our Methods to Appear at AccessNets

MetroFi schedules Portland shutoff for June 30

MetroFi Network is for Sale

Reporters sometimes get basic facts wrong