By Jennifer Polis

As Portland prepares to select a winner in its bid to offer a wireless Internet cloud throughout the city, questions remain about the project’s affordability, privacy issues and the wisdom of a government/corporate supported network.

With “Unwire Portland,” the city is bringing in a private company to provide the network infrastructure and service the city and its citizens need to operate wirelessly. The city, Trimet, and Portland Public Schools would be anchor tenants, guaranteeing income for the company building the network while negotiating lower rates. No public funding will go into building the network, but the city will provide rooftop and other access points for equipment to carry the signal.

“Nothing is preventing a private company from coming in and putting a network in,” said Jesse Beason, senior policy director for Commissioner Sam Adams. “This is better than waiting for that to happen.” He hopes that by being ahead of the curve, the city will be able to attract businesses and help close the “Digital Divide” while still being able to bargain on its own terms.

According to the city’s Request for Proposals (RFP), “The primary public benefit sought through this RFP is the delivery of cost competitive broadband access” in addition to free, unlimited access to pre-defined public interest Web sites such as city, state, and county government sites, Trimet, Oregon Food Bank, Free Geek and others. The city is also giving points to the bidder who “demonstrate[s] a willingness to provide the public with access to the Internet free of charge,” although this is not a requirement.

According to Dailywireless.org, of the three companies that were in the running as of this writing, EarthLink would offer low-income residents half-price subscriptions, VeriLAN would offer free service at slower speeds, and MetroFi would have a free, ad-supported option for low-income residents.

When the Unwire Portland steering committee convened, Beason said, they considered offering either “blanket affordability” or a tiered pricing system. They opted for the latter. “It became clear to us that nothing prevents a non-profit such as REACH from becoming a wholesaler (of bandwidth) and passing on reduced rates to customer,” he said. Plus, groups offering free Internet connections, such as the Personal Telco Project, would still be able to offer those connections.

While the city states that one of its goals for this proposal is to help close the “Digital Divide,” it’s clear that this is only one step, and is far from enough. In fact, according to the Portland Development Commission’s (PDC’s) “Public Participation Plan,” low-income neighborhoods are the last on the list to be connected. Also, as Beason concedes, low-income residents are the least likely to own computers with wireless cards, or laptop computers which usually have wireless capabilities built in.

Aside from cost concerns, there are also questions about the security of such a large network being shared by so many people.

“Creating one large network that people use de facto makes it much easier for people to focus their time and resources to do bad things. This includes the government and hackers, “ said an information technology professional in Portland who wished to be identified only as Salaud. Keeping tabs on people will also be much easier because people will have to sign into the pay service using their real names, he points out.

In the age of the PATRIOT Act, this loss of anonymity is obviously cause for alarm. Identity theft is also a concern, as well as the possibility of the private ISP collecting and selling personal information, such as browsing habits, to outside companies.

As far as security is concerned, Beason said that there would be no larger security concerns with a citywide network as there would be with any other network, especially since it would be encrypted.

Encrypted data isn’t necessarily safe, however, since encryptions can always be unscrambled. “Cracking [an encryption] is just a question of how much effort you want to put into it,” Salaud said. Ultimately, wireless networks are a lot less secure than wired networks, since information is traveling through the air and can be intercepted at any time by anybody.

The RFP details the “multilayer security approach” that the winning bidder must have for the network. This includes 128-bit encryption; separate segmentation for government, business, and consumers; support for the IEEE security standard 802.11i, and support against viruses, among other security features. However, security also depends on individuals knowing how to protect their own computers.

Michael Weinberg, a coordinator with Personal Telco, laments the public’s lack of knowledge on security issues that can potentially render computers useless. “All too often, those who provide and promote Internet service aren’t interested in educating the public about the potential dangers,” he said. “Personal Telco is working to change this by actively educating the public about ways they can protect their computers and their information when they go online.”

Even if the network were secure, Salaud questions the city’s motives for wanting to centralize such an important resource into the hands of a private company. “If there is anything that people need to not lose control over in the information age, it’s information,” he said.

He points to Personal Telco’s commitment to building a community-supported network from the ground up as an example of what the city should be striving for. Over the last six years, Personal Telco has provided over 100 free wireless “nodes” in the city, empowering hundreds of people with access to the Internet with a relatively small group of volunteers, and at relatively little cost.

“We should let the people create the infrastructure in a grassroots way,” Salaud said, also noting that Free Geek has provided free equipment to help get people online.

Currently, Personal Telco is working on the “Historic Mississippi Community Network,” a plan to wirelessly connect the Mississippi/Boise neighborhood with a grant from the Meyer Memorial Trust. “What we’re doing there is building a community network that covers many square blocks of the neighborhood and business district, and educating the community on how to grow the network and connect to it,” said Weinberg, who is the project’s administrator.

Although Weinberg disagrees that a citywide wireless network can be achieved organically, since “the city’s primary goal is cost-reduction,” he realizes the importance of keeping control in the hands of the people. “We’re encouraging people to build networks that they own and manage, so that ultimately they control a piece of this important resource, which is quickly becoming another utility,” he said.

Salaud also compares the Internet to a utility. “At one time people who wanted power needed to make their own,” he said. “Now look where we are. We’ve lost control of our power supply.” He worries that as governments and corporations get into the business of providing wireless, it could ultimately kill the market for cheap and free Internet networking gear as less and less people are encouraged to make their own.

As the Internet becomes an ever more integral part of our society, we must assure that everyone has access, regardless of income. Ultimately, this involves not just the infrastructure, but providing people with the tools and hardware needed to participate. However, it is unlikely that a profit-driven company would offer free Internet connections to the majority of the people; and the city won’t soon be in the business of handing out free wireless cards, computers and laptops to those who can’t afford to connect to the network. In the end, the city’s plan is handing over control of a very important resource to enrich a private company, and it is not a decision that should be taken lightly.

“Putting all the eggs in the government or corporate basket will be devastating to the grassroots, free and diverse network infrastructure that we are building,” Salaud said. “The quick availability of wireless to more people from a centrally run source is not worth it.”

Jennifer Polis is a local freelance writer, food activist, and Alliance board member.