Portland, UNPLUGGED

[September 17th, 2003] Picture this: A Lufthansa flight lands at PDX. A globe-trotting executive power-walks down the gangway and flips open her laptop. Bam--she discovers she's in Internet heaven.

She can ride the MAX, blasting minions with bullying email. She can soak up sun at Pioneer Square, trading stocks online. She can walk anywhere in central Portland--the Museum, the Esplanade, Three Sisters--and maintain light-speed Net access. Pretty soon, she decides Portland would make a better new HQ for her company than Mumbai, after all.

That, more or less, is the dream of a new committee of local political and business heavy-hitters. The group--saddled with the ungainly name Portland Telecommunications Steering Committee--met for the first time Sept. 8. On hand were representatives of the Portland Development Commission, the investment firm Oregon Venture Partners, City Commissioner Erik Sten's office and the city's techie elite. Intel, the chip-making giant, is expected to take a role soon.

The goal: make Portland a player in the exploding world of "wireless fidelity," or wi-fi, technology that allows users to access the Internet through thin air.

Wi-fi works like radio. A wi-fi "hotspot" transmits to the surrounding few hundred feet. If you're in that area with a computer outfitted with a wi-fi card (usually $39-$99), you can surf without plugging into anything.

The world's first public hotspots appeared less than a year ago, and the canaries are already singing in the digital coal mine. An Intel study released last week says 71 percent of business travelers believe wi-fi provides a competitive advantage (even though only 10 percent have actually used it) and will ensure their next laptop is wi-fi-friendly. The market-research firm IDC predicts that within three years, 96 percent of mobile PCs will include wi-fi technology.

All that has cities looking at wi-fi as a salve to post-tech-boom economic woes.

Last week, Seattle announced a wi-fi onslaught that will fire up 250 hotspots around Jet City by year's end. Such news leaves Portland playing catch-up. "We need to move quickly," said Marshall Runkel, a Sten staffer. "Every other city in the country is pushing this hard. We don't want to be the last."

Ironically, just this spring an Intel study proclaimed Portland to be America's most wi-fi-friendly city per capita, on the strength of 130 public hotspots. The problem is, that happened by sheer chance.

The nonprofit Personal Telco Project installed the majority of Portland's hotspots. Made up of local wireless crusaders working for free, PTP plants free-access wireless nodes at willing businesses and other locations.

"So far, it's held together by people's good intentions and free time," Runkel said.

The committee hopes to create seamless commercial wi-fi service blanketing downtown Portland. As yet there's no timetable and no budget. For a start, the group plans to kick-start the installation of wi-fi transmitters atop city-owned buildings. Efforts to recruit private-property owners and find a company to run the system would come later.

"This would focus attention on Portland," said Nigel Ballard, PTP's voice on the new committee. "We need to create an environment where the rent is still cheaper than Silicon Valley, and the access is just as good."