NPR report says that Portland, Ore.'s anecdotally isn't working that well: Critical piece that finds people who can't get a good signal out of MetroFi's network and who disagree with its business model. The reporter, however, was able to get a good signal and watch a YouTube video.
Corona, Calif., opts out of MetroFi deal: The city had selected MetroFi last year, when the company was offering $18,000 per year in utility pole fees. MetroFi's revised business model of the last few months requires that cities sign up for services in advance, however, and that led Corona to pull out. MetroFi wants a commitment of $90,000 per year for five years.
MetroFi coincidentally (or not) released usage numbers for Portland for June: 13,000 unique registered users, 150,000 hours, 96,000 sessions. I'd like them to be fully transparent and release statistics about session churn: how many users connect, send very little data, lose a connection, re-connect, and so on. I'm sure they gather that data.