Updates: Philly network buildout continues, Portland’s Wi-Fi access points face cold winter
  
Esme Vos | October 5, 2008 at 7:52 am
  
A tale of two cities: Philadelphia’s wireless network, acquired by a group of local investors, is being rolled out to parts of the city where there’s no access. More importantly, the investors are going after the municipal and business markets, two areas that EarthLink failed to focus on in its muni Wi-Fi strategy. Philly’s network sees over 100,000 users per day (correction: it’s not 100,000 users per day, but sessions per month — see Glenn Fleishman’s comment below), with more people online during the week than the weekend, suggesting people are using it for work-related reasons. The key to making the Philly network succeed is to use it for a variety of purposes: municipal, business, consumer. If they can get one or more large organizations to become anchor tenants and to pay for access, they’ve got the beginnings of a sustainable business model.
  
Meanwhile in Portland, the city has not done a thing to use the access points set up by MetroFi. They’re just hanging there like overripe fruit. The city wants to dismantle them even if it costs $36,000. Why not donate the network to a group of Portland geeks who can use it to test a variety of applications? Even give them a grant for the upkeep and backhaul, but use the wireless APs for test bed. The city has no plan to use the network for municipal purposes either. What a shame.

Philadelphia wireless network buildout continues | MuniWireless

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