About Portland Fiber

Portland Fiber sprang from the advocacy efforts of two Personal Telco Project presidents, Russell Senior and Michael Weinberg. In the summer of 2008, Russell and Michael began talking with city leaders about ways to create an open-access fiber-to-the-premises infrastructure in Portland, OR.

Based on many years of advocacy and grassroots work to combat inadequate broadband infrastructure and digital inclusion, we believe that a ubiquitous, open-access fiber network is necessary for Portland to remain competitive in the national and world economies, achieve universal broadband access for our citizens, and foster new business ideas leveraging next-generation bandwidth.

We believe that one of the best options would be a publicly operated wholesale network, with open-access to a variety of service providers, competing on an even footing, to offer voice, Internet and television services, as well as new services fostered by the availability of such a network. We are, however, mindful of the myriad political challenges involved in building this, and we are open to any initiative that would achieve open-access, fiber-to-the-premises infrastructure.