Re: Bait and Switch?

This is all about poor business planning and simply not understanding
fundamental RF. It is also about a head-long rush into Muni Wireless based
on "mob" thinking. When several large manufacturers and service providers -
Earthlink, MetroFi, Azulstar, Cisco, Motorola, Intel, etc... - started
pushing for and responding to poorly written and designed RFP's, the
floodgates opened. As happened in the dot.bomb era, a lot of organizations
reacted with a knee-jerk and never thoroughly checked out the facts. 

 Unfortunately, no one wins in this scenario: The city doesn't get the
network they expected and promised, MetroFi (and its investors and
suppliers) don't make money, the muni-wireless industry looks bad and, most
importantly, the citizens of Portland don't get a competitive service!

 A true partnership of public and private organizations is what is missing
here. Wireless works but you need to generate a clearer expectation, have a
true partnership where both parties have something to gain or lose and
spread out the revenue over a larger user base, including commercial and
municipal contracts.

 Being in the business of supplying and installing wireless projects, the
Unwire Portland project has been very difficult to watch and has been
particularly painful for me. Having volunteered with PTP for over 6 years
now, I believe the vision that created the Mississippi project could and
should be used to expand and fulfill the promise of Unwire Portland.

 My .02 worth...

Rick Lindahl
Invictus Networks, LLC
503-635-2562, f 503-635-9207
www.invictusnetworks.com

-----Original Message-----
From: general-bounces-9Og1/[email protected]
[mailto:general-bounces-9Og1/[email protected]] On Behalf Of Brian Moon
Sent: Friday, October 05, 2007 10:39 AM
To: PTP General list
Subject: Re: [ptp-general] Bait and Switch?

Thanks for the clarification. It's less about the anchor's function after
the fact, and more about commitment (and money) before the profits start
rolling in, then.

Makes sense, now that I know that Metro-Fi's executive board all come from a
background of sales, not technical. Meh.

On 05 Oct 2007 10:34:16 -0700, Russell Senior <[email protected]>
wrote:
>
> >>>>> "Brian" == Brian Moon <[email protected]> writes:
>
> Brian> What does "anchor tenancy" mean? What does it look like?  My
> Brian> first thought was of a shopping mall: a bunch of stores, mostly
> Brian> small, with a large store (Macy's or Sears, for example) as a
> Brian> big draw.
>
> Brian> But I don't know how that would work for municipal wireless.
>
> MetroFi gives away "free" wifi, but it also sells it, either without
> ads or in fixed-wireless service.  What MetroFi is asking for,
> essentially, is for the City to buy some amount of service so as to
> provide a funding stream to make themselves either solvent or perhaps
> more profitable than they are now (I have no way of knowing anything
> about their finances).  It looks like they are willing to walk away if
> the City doesn't do it.  However, the Willamette Week carried a story
> in August with this:
>
>    Kleier [the City's project manager] says that about six months ago,
>    the company asked him to buy more network subscriptions than the
>    city "could possibly afford."
>
> "We said our contract didn't have any commitments. And that was the
>    end of that discussion," Kleier says.
>
> This network was a business risk.  That's what makes America great,
> right?  The City has been admirably effective at insulating itself
> financially from that risk.
>
>
> --
> Russell Senior, Secretary
> [email protected]
>
> --
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