This is an update on my previous MetroFi review from a year ago. MetroFi is the company tapped by Portland Metro to blanket the city with free WiFi.
I recently used the service downtown and found it to be better than my previous experience. The banner ads are gone, improving Internet browsing tremendously.
The only downside is that they’ve thrown a registration page before access is granted. Not just an “I accept” page, which is somewhat commonplace, but a complete multi-step create an account process.
The good news is that they don’t get deep into personal information–telephone numbers, address. It’s still a barrier, but well worth the one time annoyance to get better service.
I suspect they are doing some serious attention data gathering. If they aren’t working with major sites (ie, search engines) to serve up relevant ads yet, they will be soon. Privacy issues aside, this should be better for the users.
MetroFi still won’t replace my own Internet provider, nor keep me from going to WiFi coffeeshops, but it’s now a viable recommendation for the average Portlander who lives very near one of MetroFi’s hotspots.
Leave a Reply