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The Wifi Slugfest Over Portland's PGE Park
tomwhore writes "Portland's community wireless networking group, Personal Telco Project (PTP), recently knocked one into the ball park with a new WiFi node. The new node covers the area around and inside of Portland's PGE Ballpark. While free internet access would be welcome by most, PGE Park managers are not happy. They recently cut a deal giving Comcast exclusive rights to do up their networking. 'This is our stadium, and we run the communications for it,' said Chris Metz, a PGE Park spokesman. To find out more about the impact of the PTPs latest home run check out this article in the Oregonian and over at the PTP's website." Let's hope the park also puts a Faraday cage around the whole park to ensure radio silence.
PGE Park doesn't mind having it, and states how they don't mind it as they have no possition on wifi as Comcast isn't in the market. What PGE Park didn't like how PTP stated, "PGE Park gets Wireless Access thanks to PTP". To anyone who isn't in the free wifi 'know', this sounds like a business deal, and I completly side with PTP on this. The wording/catchphrase/marketing chosen for the announcement is not fair, and I can see why PGE Park has said what they did.
.. If anything the title of this slashdot article should be, "Wifi group PTP puts PGE Park in a bad situation with recent announcement."
PTP kinda put words in PGE Parks mouth, and makes it sound like PGE Park was fully involved. Future problems could be people complaining about wifi access to PGE Park, or any other 'internet' issues. Worst case could be someone can't make a stock sell, loses money, sues PGE Park because of the announcement he knew of "PGE Park gets wifi acces thanks to PTP", judge see's it, yells at PTP, case dropped, and PGE Park gets some bad press. It's not fair to PGE Park.
I personally provide free wifi for my neighborhood and joining the local wifi club soon. Since airspace is shared and not easily seperated there's some things you have to be careful of to make sure bad relations arn't formed in this process, and this is one case to be aware of for the future.. I hope PTP is more careful in the future.
my $.02
This is not the first time the PTP has run into a snag trying to offer free net access. Back a while ago there was a slight problem with the then new Starbucks hotposts at the "heart" of the city.
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.s sf ?/xml/story.ssf/html_stand
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08/19/02
JEFFREY KOSSEFF and ERIC HAND
The world's biggest barista and a grass-roots group are squaring off in a wireless game of chicken at Pioneer Courthouse Square.
On one end stands Starbucks, which this week likely will begin marketing a paid service that lets its customers in Portland's living room connect their laptops wirelessly to the Internet. On the other is Personal Telco, a local group of computer hobbyists, which has provided the same service for free in the square since February.
Sure, there's room on the wireless spectrum for peaceful coexistence. But Starbucks, using wireless carrier T-Mobile, is transmitting its signal on the same channel Personal Telco has used for the past six months. Neither has budged.
The result? Both Starbucks customers and Personal Telco members may face slower speeds on the suddenly crowded channel.
The battle illustrates a growing problem with the increasingly popular technology known as wireless fidelity, or "Wi-Fi." Unlike cell phones, it operates on an unlicensed spectrum, so experts expect such disputes will become more common as demand grows.
Like cordless phones and walkie-talkies, nobody can own Wi-Fi's spectrum, and federal regulators have little authority over it, said Dale Hatfield, former chief of the Federal Communications Commission's Office of Engineering and Technology.
"There's no prior claims; there's no squatter's rights; there's nothing like that," said Hatfield, now a telecommunications professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder. "You both have to try to live with each other. I can't imagine why one wouldn't voluntarily move to one of the other channels that has less interference."
Adam Shand can imagine. The founder of Personal Telco says his group was there first and that in similar disputes nationwide, incumbents have successfully retained their wireless channels.
"If we take the stance that we're the little guy and start hopping around, what happens when there are no channels left?" Shand said.
Representatives of Starbucks and T-Mobile owner VoiceStream said they were unaware of any other wireless Internet presence in the square and had no comment on Personal Telco's objection.
Since late 2000, Personal Telco has persuaded individuals and businesses to donate high-speed Internet connections to its cause -- creating a "cloud" of free wireless access over the Portland area. Using specially designed "wireless ethernet" cards, Web surfers within a block or two of the donors' homes or businesses can tap into the signal.
The group has about 70 Internet access points throughout the Portland area. One was donated by WebCriteria, a Web consultancy whose eighth-floor offices overlook Pioneer Courthouse Square.
As many as six people have surfed the Web at the same time in the square using the WebCriteria link, often receiving connections faster than wired broadband connections, said Nigel Ballard, a
Personal Telco member and owner of wireless consultancy joejava.com.
To connect through Personal Telco, users can type a donor's identification number, available on the group's Web site, www.personaltelco.net. Their computers also can search for the Internet connection. And until recently, they've latched onto Personal Telco's signal in Pioneer Courthouse Square.
Now, they can inadvertently connect to the Starbucks paid service.
Although Starbucks and T-Mobile will likely begin marketing the service this week in the square, Shand said the paid service has been operating for a few weeks. Personal Telco users have reported problems.
"The performance of o
Poor little clams! Snap! Snap! Snap! Poor little clams! Snap! Snap! Snap! Poor little clams! Snap! Snap! Snap!
PGE park would be easy to cover the entire park with *regular* WAPs - let alone WAPs with good antennas. How much do you know about PGE Park? It is a small park with a couple open sides, and lots of businesses and apartments around - and on a hill. So it would be very easy to put a good directional antenna in a building up the hill next to the park and cover most of the stadium. Check out PortlandMaps Aerial Photo for a better context.
"This is our stadium, and we run the communications for it"
No, the FCC regulates radio communications. They have no right under existing law to control the radio transmissions on their property.