Who is the Personal Telco Project
Hello from all the members of Personal Telco Project. First and foremost, please accept our thanks for taking time out of your day to read this. We appreciate your interest in PTP, and we hope that in time you will become as enthusiastic about our mission as we are.
The Personal Telco Project Mission
“To promote and build public wireless networks through community support and education. “
Personal Telco is a grass roots effort to build an Internet-connected wireless network in Portland, Oregon. By deploying our own wireless access points, and providing the tools and support for others to do so, we are fostering the global growth of city-wide networks which are open to, and maintained by the public.
The History of the Personal Telco Project
PTP was formed in August 2000 by a few friends interested in the budding wireless networking technologies and has since grown into one of the world's leading Wi-Fi community groups. In 2003 and again in 2004 Portland won the Intel-sponsored ‘Best Places To Use Free Wi-Fi’ award, and that was mainly due to the efforts of PTP. We are a volunteer group who give up their free time to build and maintain the network for the benefit of Portland residents and visitors.
Our flagship node, overlooking Pioneer Courthouse Square area serves Internet users everyday, and has been providing free Wi-Fi since March 2002, longer than the Starbucks/T-mobile in the Square. In fact, when Intel showcased Wi-Fi technology last summer, the PTP node had at least 3 times as many users as the free-for-a-day T-Mobile node in Pioneer Courthouse Square area. This highlights both the easy of use, and ubiquity of PTP nodes.
Who We Are
Personal Telco members are your neighbors, your customers and your friends. Our community is vast and all-inclusive. Our members range from computer experts who are proud to be called geeks, to business professionals who call IT every time they need to print. We are teenagers and grandparents. Anyone interested in free wireless access for the public is welcome in PTP. This is something we are passionate about, and we are always eager to share that passion.