08.12.03
Indirect Quoting
From: “Nigel Ballard”
To: “‘Personal Telco Project'”
Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2003 11:04:42 -0700
Subject: [ptp-general] PGE Park PTP Story now in print
bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2003/08/11/
Cheers,
Nigel
The quote at the top of the second page or half way through the article was a comment that I made on the Personal Telco list…
The Business Journal of Portland – August 11, 2003
http://portland.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2003/08/11/story4.html
EXCLUSIVE REPORTS
Free wireless strikes out with PGE Park officials
Aliza Earnshaw
Business Journal staff writer
Personal Telco Project’s quest to fill Portland with free wireless computer access wasn’t a hit at PGE Park.
Personal Telco’s installation of a node at downtown staffing agency Moonlight Staffing Inc. provides PGE Park with free wireless access, but Portland Family Entertainment, which operates the park, was not pleased by the gesture, said spokesman Chris Metz.
The issue came to light when PTP’s Nigel Ballard issued a press release saying that customers of PGE Park now had access to free wireless from anywhere in the stadium. Personal Telco has installed some 100 free, wireless nodes throughout the city.
“I told Nigel not to put out the release,” said Metz. “They’re using PGE Park to help promote their product, without our permission.”
There are a couple of serious conflicts between free wireless access and PGE Park’s commercial interests, Metz said. For one thing, cable company Comcast Corp., which sells internet access service, is a sponsor at PGE Park, he said. PFE already provides wireline internet access for reporters covering games at the stadium, a service that is powered by PGE Park’s provider, Qwest Communications International Inc.
But Qwest does not see any conflict between the service it provides at PGE Park and that provided by PTP’s node. “Wireline and wireless serve two different types of customers, and customers are going to choose whatever best meets their needs,” said Qwest vice president Judy Peppler. “We welcome competition, and we are competitive in our market.”
Comcast officials did not return calls asking for their take on the wireless issue.
Neither Ballard nor Todd Kimball, president of Moonlight Staffing, thought of conflicts of interest when they agreed to install a node at Kimball’s company. Rather, both were thinking of expanding the number of locations in the Portland area where people can access the internet, an amenity that both men feel adds considerably to Portland’s attractions.
“It’s good for people to know that when they go to major tourist attractions, they can bring their laptop, surf the net, and check their e-mail,” said Kimball. “Fifteen or 20 minutes of necessary business activity doesn’t have to interfere with their social activities.”
Kimball said that PGE Park employees had seemed “excited” about the node, and allowed Ballard to walk around the stadium, testing the access in various locations. But Metz said that PFE was less than excited. “Moonlight Staffing is using PGE Park as a platform, and they aren’t authorized to do that,” he said.
Metz also wonders why Kimball is touting the node as a benefit to customers. “I don’t see fans bringing in laptops,” he said.
Ballard said he has heard from one fan who thanked PTP and Moonlight for “adding to the enjoyment of the afternoon’s [soccer] game.” Ballard and other PTP folk also heard that a journalist covering a recent Waterfront Park event used the Moonlight node to file his report electronically “from a Winnebago he’d parked outside PGE Park,” Ballard said.
EasyStreet Online Services, which sells internet access and web hosting services throughout the Portland area, is very comfortable cooperating with PTP and helping to enable the growth of Portland’s free wireless network. In fact, EasyStreet is now donating the wireless access that turns Pioneer Courthouse Square into Portland’s most popular free node.
“I believe that there will be both free hotspots and for-pay hotspots in the foreseeable future,” said Rich Bader, EasyStreet’s president and co-founder.
Many people around the nation now view free hotspots as “good for economic development,” said Bader. The city of Long Beach, Calif., for example, provides free wireless service as part of an ongoing campaign to attract tourists and new businesses.
But free internet access has its limitations, Bader pointed out: less reliable service, as nodes are sometimes taken down without warning, and a lack of phone-based support. There’s a niche that for-pay wireless providers can fill, if they go about it cleverly enough, but so far, making hot spots pay has proved difficult, if not impossible, Bader said.
It is certain that the conflict between free hotspots and paid access will be ongoing. The nebulous nature of wireless seems well expressed in Bader’s own view of the situation in Portland. “We maintain a full working relationship with PTP,” he said. “They continue to do a terrific job. And we also continue to keep our finger on the pulse of other wireless activity in the city, and if it makes sense for us to participate in them, we will.”
© 2003 American City Business Journals Inc.