The Personal Telco Project (or PTP) is a
wireless community network
Wireless community networks or wireless community projects or simply community networks, are non-centralized, self-managed and collaborative networks organized in a grassroots fashion by communities, non-governmental organizations and cooperatives ...
project in
Portland, Oregon
Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...
. It was founded by
Adam Shand in November 2000 after he read a
Slashdot
''Slashdot'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''/.'') is a social news website that originally billed itself as "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters". It features news stories on science, technology, and politics that are submitted and evaluated by site ...
article about the
Consume The Net project in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
.
PTP has wireless
hotspot
Hotspot, Hot Spot or Hot spot may refer to:
Places
* Hot Spot, Kentucky, a community in the United States
Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities
* Hot Spot (comics), a name for the DC Comics character Isaiah Crockett
* Hot Spot (Tr ...
s offering free
Internet access
Internet access is a facility or service that provides connectivity for a computer, a computer network, or other network device to the Internet, and for individuals or organizations to access or use applications such as email and the World Wide ...
at locations around Portland including
Pioneer Courthouse Square
Pioneer Courthouse Square, also known as Portland's living room, is a public space occupying a full city block in the center of Downtown Portland, downtown Portland, Oregon, Portland, Oregon, United States. Opened in 1984, the square is bound ...
, three public parks, and several restaurants and coffee shops using
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for Wireless LAN, local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by ...
.
In 2005 PTP was involved in a grant-funded project to bring free wireless Internet to an entire neighborhood in North Portland, along N. Mississippi Avenue.
PTP is a
non-profit organization
A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...
in the state of
Oregon
Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...
, and received its 501(c)(3) status (a federal tax exemption granted to charitable organizations) in early 2003.
PTP made US news in August 2002 when their hotspot at Pioneer Courthouse Square was blocked by a for-fee hotspot at a nearby
Starbucks
Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational List of coffeehouse chains, chain of coffeehouses and Starbucks Reserve, roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gor ...
coffee shop. The problem was resolved amicably when the for-fee hotspot moved their connection to another channel.
Slashdot
''Slashdot'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''/.'') is a social news website that originally billed itself as "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters". It features news stories on science, technology, and politics that are submitted and evaluated by site ...
Starbucks Clashes With WiFi Hobbyists Over Airwaves
August 20, 2002
On March 4, 2003, a study was published stating Portland had more wireless hotspots per capita than any other U.S. city. This was due in part to PTP's advocacy.
References
External links
*{{official url (
Wiki
A wiki ( ) is a form of hypertext publication on the internet which is collaboratively edited and managed by its audience directly through a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages that can either be edited by the public or l ...
server)
Article about the first PTP meeting!-- not it does not work for me? -->
Wireless network organizations
Organizations based in Portland, Oregon
Communications in Oregon
Wiki communities
Wi-Fi providers
2000 establishments in Oregon