Internet companies and the city envision a future where Corvallis will cut its cords

Corvallis could soon join the small but growing number of communities with citywide wireless Internet access, but it’s not yet clear what form such a network might take.

The city is exploring the possibility of either building its own system of antennas to supply secure data connections to police officers, firefighters and other government employees or contracting with a private network operator. The same system could also be used to provide public access to the Internet.

At the same time, several local Internet providers are exploring the possibility of erecting their own wireless networks, and one — Alyrica Networks of Philomath — has already begun the process.

Robel Tadesse, the management information systems manager for Corvallis, said city staff have been looking for ways to upgrade the city’s existing wireless network, which provides limited connections for police officers and others in the field.

The city has signed a memorandum of understanding with Intel Corp., which is spearheading a tech industry push for municipal wireless networks called “Digital Communities,” and has begun to look at various scenarios for constructing a citywide network.

So far, Tadesse stressed, all these conversations are preliminary. But after some additional work, the city plans to put out a request for proposals from companies interested in helping set up the network.

“We hope to publish it by early March,” Tadesse said.

At this point, city officials envision three possible scenarios:

• Public community owned: The city would build the network and sell bandwidth to citizens.

• Private network provider: A private company would build the network, which would be used by city agencies and residents.

• Cooperative wholesale: The city would partner with a private company or nonprofit to build the network, with an arrangement for sharing operation and maintenance costs.

Given budget constraints, Tadesse said the first scenario is unlikely.

“What we are looking at, like many other municipalities our size, is to have someone come in and build the infrastructure so the city is not in the business of selling bandwidth,” he said.

By the time the city starts getting bids for a municipal wi-fi system, however, Alyrica Networks hopes to have one in place throughout downtown. The Philomath company, which already sells wireless Internet service to businesses and individuals, has installed the beginnings of a broader network it plans to make available to the public.

“We’re still deploying hotspots, getting ready for our turn-up, which will be in March or April,” said Joseph Sullivan, who owns the company with his brother, Kevin.

To cover downtown, the brothers calculate they’ll need about 20 hotspots, each consisting of a transmitter that beams a wi-fi signal over a small area and a backhaul radio that links users back to Alyrica’s computer system.

So far, Sullivan said, they’ve installed “a handful” of hotspots on privately owned buildings in the city center and are negotiating with property owners for the rights to install more.

Their plan is to offer limited free access to the public, including connections to popular e-mail and instant messaging services along with Web sites for Oregon State University and local businesses and government agencies.

People who want unlimited access would have to open an Alyrica account. The company is looking at a three-tiered price structure ranging from $10 a month for its lowest-speed link to $39 for its fastest, highest-capacity pipeline.

Alyrica would also allow other providers to offer access over its equipment for a fee, much as Baby Bells sell capacity on their telephone lines to service resellers.

Those two revenue streams would be used to finance an expansion of the wi-fi network citywide.

The company’s strategy, Sullivan explained, is to grab market share by building a network before anyone else does, whether that’s the city or a private operator.

“It’s kind of written on the wall. Cities all over the place are doing this, and sooner or later it’s going to come to Corvallis,” he said.

“If it’s going to happen, we want to be involved.”

Other local Internet service providers, however, say they’re skeptical.

“It’s generally not as simple as just slapping up antennas here and there,” said Mike Reding, marketing coordinator for PEAK Internet. Outside downtown, he noted, there are few tall buildings on which to mount the equipment.

PEAK, the largest locally owned Internet provider in the mid-valley with about 13,000 subscribers, has made only limited forays into wireless access so far. In Corvallis, for instance, it has three hotspots, at Ruby Tuesday, Dutch Bros. and the luxury section of Reser Stadium.

But the company recently bought out Oregon Net, a small Lane County wireless provider, and plans to aggressively market wi-fi in the Eugene-Springfield area. Reding also said the company likely would respond to the city’s request for proposals, and he wouldn’t rule out the possibility that PEAK might build its own network locally.

“We are keenly interested in opportunities for citywide access, whether wi-fi or wi-max, in the Willamette Valley,” Reding said.

ExchangeNet, a small Corvallis provider with a number of hotspots around town, may also submit a bid to operate the city’s proposed wireless network, said owner Sam Murk.

But he’s not in any hurry to build his own wi-fi network.

“Everybody’s all excited about it, and I can see that it’s the future, but there’s some problems with it,” he said.

One of the biggest problems, Murk said, is that popular wireless fidelity frequencies are already getting crowded, leading to dropped e-mails, slow download speeds and aggravated users.

“You get too many people shouting in one room, you can’t hear the one you’re talking to,” he said. “I would proceed with caution.”

Nevertheless, it’s clear that other communities are getting unwired. Portland is pushing to create a citywide wi-fi network, as are other big cities such as Philadelphia and San Francisco.

Closer to home, the city of Lebanon, with assistance from Digital Communities participant Cisco Systems, is well on its way to completing a wireless network using equipment mounted on power poles. The first 10 hours of access each month is free, and people can get unlimited access by opening an account.

“We’ve got about 60 percent of the city covered so far,” said Duston Denver of Valnet, the local ISP that operates the city-owned network. “If anybody came into town with a laptop, they could log on.”

And that’s the whole idea, said Scott Lewis of metrofreefi.com, which tracks wireless access around the country.

Lewis said Corvallis is a leader among cities of its size with a dozen free hotspots in coffeehouses, restaurants and other public places. But if it doesn’t take the next step — creating a communitywide network — it risks getting left behind in the next digital gold rush.

“It’s an information-on-demand world, and this just speeds up the process,” he said. “Citywide is where the trend is going. The major question is going to be A, how profitable or sustainable will it be, and B, who owns it.”