Leslie Cauley has this item in USA Today about the status of New Orleans’ free muni-Wi-Fi initiative. Greg Meffert, New Orleans’ CIO, claims that BellSouth is lobbying against legislation that would allow the city’s free Wi-Fi service to keep running after a state of emergency is lifted later this year.
Louisiana has a state law that bars cities from giving away broadband service, but New Orleans got an exemption from that law in the wake of Hurricane Katrina due to its state of emergency classification. Once the state of emergency is over, the city could lose its right to offer free Wi-Fi if it doesn’t get a further exemption.
Although BellSouth denies it is interfering with the city’s Wi-Fi plans, the telco can’t be happy that the city reached out to rival EarthLink last week to take over the network. EarthLink plans to spend $15 million in the next three years to build out the network to a 15-to-20-mile radius around the city.
Cynthia Brumfield at 8:14 AM|Comments(0)
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