Microsoft Launches Its First Foray Into Wi-Fi Municipal Search In Portland

location based services

Struggling to catch up in the wireless online advertising market, Microsoft revealed Wednesday that it will launch a Wi-Fi pilot program covering Portland, Ore. The advertising-supported service, to be deployed by MetroFi, will be free for Portland residents and, Microsoft hopes, will give it a leg up on its , for instance, offers free Wi-Fi access through a program that uses a network of sponsors. But Wi-Fi municipal deployment can be challenging as evidenced by Sacramento, Calif.'s recent problems.
According to the Portland Oregonian newspaper, MetroFi will finance the network, which will cover 95% of the city by mid-2008. The network will formally launch next month in downtown Portland, a city of about 500,000 residents.
MetroFi is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., near Microsoft's arch-rival in search Google, which is rolling out a free W-Fi network in that municipality. While the Google search box will surely appear first to users in Mountain View, users of the new Portland Wi-Fi network will see the Microsoft search box first.