Portland will beef up Wi-Fi even more: Already known for being one of the most Wi-Fi friendly cities around, Portland's city government is really working to cement that distinction. The Portland Telecommunications Steering Committee is trying to make it as easy as possible for companies to deploy Wi-Fi in the city. It plans to offer the rooftops of city buildings to Wi-Fi operators that want to place their antennas there. In exchange, the operators must offer some tier of service to citizens for free.
While Seattle city leaders aren't nearly cool enough to come up with a plan like this, it looks like there may be a bit of competition among these two Pacific Northwest towns. An Intel survey found Portland to be the most unwired city in March but recently when Cometa announced a deal in Seattle it clamed that Seattle would have the most hotspots. Let the games begin… [via Nigel Ballard]