Microsoft is copying Google in the free wifi space

Slashdot It! Microsoft Corp is playing its first-ever role in providing a free, ad-supported wireless network in a major U.S. city - Portland, Ore.

Microsoft's role in Portland is to provide a key element: advertisements that will appear across the top of the Internet browsers of people using the network. Revenue from the ads will fund the network's operations. Microsoft will also provide the Web page greeting users at log on. It will be packed with Microsoft's Internet features, such as localized search and mapping.

The Portland network, which is also to offer a $20-a-month ad free service, is widely considered a dry run for Microsoft's metro wireless network ambitions.

"This is kind of our first pilot," said Stefan Weitz, director of planning of Microsoft's online service group. "When the time comes when there's an ecosystem in place that supports us, I can see us engaging in it, certainly."

Should things go well, it's likely Microsoft will play the same role in the seven other networks that MetroFi operates in California and Illinois, thus replacing its homemade ad serving technology, and the half dozen other MetroFi expects to soon build, said MetroFi co-founder Chuck Haas.

One of the key questions Weitz said he's looking to answer is whether there's enough of a profit for Microsoft to go forward.

MetroFi's Haas said the Portland network will be turned on in December, but only a two-square mile portion. In the next 18 months, MetroFi intends to blanket 95% of the city with free wireless Internet access. It will also offer a premium, ad-free service for $20 a month.

As in other municipal wireless networks, users must supply their own computers outfitted with Wi-Fi, a ubiquitous wireless Internet standard.

With its foray into municipal wireless, Microsoft is entering a market that has attracted other technology giants, including Google Inc.