Microsoft is getting into the municipal Wi-Fi business, announcing this week a partnership with MetroFi to bring content and advertising to the service provider’s free Wi-Fi public access network in Portland, Ore.

Microsoft will deliver unspecified MSN services over wireless broadband connections and it will use its AdCenter platform to aggregate and deliver advertising from national and local advertisers to those subscribers.

MetroFi plans to launch the network by the end of the year in central Portland in and around Pioneer Courthouse Square, but it will eventually expand the network to cover 95% of the half-million-person city. MetroFi also runs the metro Wi-Fi networks in several California cities, using access points mounted on street light poles.

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