Here’s a question for the Unwire Portland team and for MetroFi. What follows can be found on page three of the questions and answers (pdf) from back in July of last year.
12. How will independent networks (i.e. Personal Telco) be affected?
We expect that Personal Telco will be only minimally affected, as the provision of comparable free service is not a major expectation of the RFP.
Note that the answer suggests that the reason the Personal Telco Project “will be only minimally affected” is because having a free level of service wasn’t considered a priority. That would seem to have an effect on the landscape.
I would imagine that, to some degree, MetroFi depends on advertising revenue generated by banner ads placed on their free service to help fund their operation of the overall wifi network. If having a free level service is not a priority, then why select a finalist who seems to need to deploy an advertising-supported service in order to help pay for their network?
Doesn’t it follow that the City selected MetroFi knowing full well they would have to widely-deploy the advertising-supported free level of service in order to have the project pencil out for them? And if that indeed does follow, then don’t the City’s repeated assurances that PTP will remain largely unaffected more or less turn out to be smoke and mirrors?
The selection of MetroFi pretty much guarantees “the provision of comparable free service” because the company requires the advertising revenue. In turn, that pretty much guarantees that PTP will be far more than “only minimally affected”.
