MetroFi Portland: No Rush to Dismantle

When municipal wireless provider MetroFi announced plans to shut off the Portland WiFi network in June, it promised to take down all the antennas by the end of July. They’re still up, though, and the city is starting to worry that Portland taxpayers may have to pick up the tab to dismantle them, says Mike Rogoway in the Oregonian.

Stan Heil of Heil Electric Co., a Southeast Portland business that has worked with cell phone companies, estimates it might cost $150 per antenna to unhook MetroFi’s gear. Multiplied by 600 antennas, that works out to $90,000.

As part of its contract with the city, MetroFi posted a $30,000 bond to cover the cost of dismantling the network in case it flamed out. And Kleier said Portland transportation crews could probably remove antennas from about 160 city-owned traffic signals, saving the city about $24,000.

That would leave Portland with a $36,000 bill. (The city paid more than $250,000 to launch the Wi-Fi project, and MetroFi invested more than $2 million to build the network.)

The city doesn’t plan to wait around too much longer to get the issue resolved, said Logan Kleier, the city staffer assigned to work with MetroFi.

Related Dailywireless articles include; Lights Out for MetroFi Portland, Municipal Fiber: Fits and Starts and Be Your Own Fiber Net.