In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans’ set up a free Wi-Fi network for businesses and residents to get connected to the Internet, providing a lifeline for a battered city. The network was built after receiving an exemption from a Louisiana state law that barred the provision of free municipal Wi-Fi service and over the reported objections of incumbent telco BellSouth.
Now, with the city coming back to life and the crisis receding, New Orleans’ free Wi-Fi network will go dark after the New Year, replaced by a private network owned by EarthLink. EarthLink, however, promises to continue offering free service with a 300 kbps tier.
As Katie Fehrenbacher at GigaOm, who jumped on this story soon after the network’s shuttering was announced, noted city CIO Greg Meffert, who won VON’s First “Medal of Honor” for keeping communications patched together in the Big Easy after Katrina, once vowed to go to jail to protect the network.
Meffert’s no longer the CIO of New Orleans (he resigned last month) and EarthLink will take over. It’s not clear what will happen to the city’s network — city officials say the Wi-Fi nodes may be deployed elsewhere.
Cynthia Brumfield at 1:03 PM|Comments(0)
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