New Orleans to Deploy Free Wi-Fi City Wide

Lawrence_Bird writes "The Washington Post is reporting that New Orleans will deploy a city wide wi-fi network with free public access. Much of the equipment has been donated, but New Orleans will own and operate the network. Interestingly, they are only able to do this while a state of emergency remains in place as technically their planned 512Kbps service violates state law prohibiting municipalities from offering access at speeds in excess of 144Kbps, a restriction the city plans on fighting even though they will eventually outsource the whole operation."

They meant "free" WiFi

[dada21]

Note that nothing a government offers is truly free, even in the case here where the hardware is mostly donated.

Government-run programs are generally maintained by unionized public workers. These programs have little competition and often cost more than a private competitive market (note [ncpa.org] municipal water reclamation costs).

The city mentions they'll outsource the program to private companies, but do you believe these companies won't be owned by cronies? Even New Orleans has their own version of Haliburton.

Is providing Internet access ever a city's responsible? In my town we have 3 city-wide free WiFi providers and 20 local "coffee shop" providers. I don't see why New Orleans feels that they're needing a taxpayer funded ISP when what they really need is a tax hiatus to bring businesses and entrepreneurs to LA to create jobs and better lives that jobs help to build.

The hurricane damage is evidence to me of the decay of government projects and the wasted taxpayer money. That money would produce a safer city with more jobs if it was left to the citizens.

Free wi-fi is important

[eobanb]

for narrowing the digital divide. I usually hate over-used politicised terms like 'digital divide' but regardless, it does exist, and free widespread personal net access is key to spreading information to more people. While internet access from libraries and such is great, it's better still to have access in one's home.

Imagine if electricity was not a public utility but a service offered by two or three price-gouging regional monopolies. A quick comparison of US broadband penetration and Europe's (largely) socialised system demonstrates why these sorts of projects are needed.

$100 Laptops

[anandpur]

Now start distributing $100 laptops to poor ppl.
http://laptop.media.mit.edu/ [mit.edu]

Re:They meant "free" WiFi

[drinkypoo]

Is providing Internet access ever a city's responsible?

I think that every government with the people's interests in mind is interested in providing them with access to information. To that end, everywhere you can't get a decent net connection (I'm lucky if I can get 31.2kbps on my dialup, because all the copper in Lake County, CA, USA is craptacular legacy pacbell stuff) should be looking at providing free wifi. It's not all that expensive to do if you do it cheaply in the first place and if the market responds with an alternative you can always just sell it off to a private company. It also helps prevent monopolies; the free market can come in and implement something better, then you can sell your solution off to some other company who can run it.

Re:Free wi-fi is important

[dada21]

I see the digital divide as caused by inept social programs, not fixed by them. The anti-poor and anti-minority regulations we have today destroy the access you want. Look at how the minimum wage [mises.org] destroys job opportunities for the poor and for minorities. The tax system we have in this country is even worse (most people pay only a tiny amount in actual IRS income tax but everyone pays a huge amount of their income for all the other taxes) for the poor.

If you want to help the poor and the minorities break this digital divide, you need for them to have opportunities in life that give them reason to learn about the Internet and about information freedom. Our public education system does the absolutely opposite, as it gives the poor a basically free daycare system that offers their offspring the indoctrination in the system that hurt their parents' desire to break free.

The only thing that really helps bring wealth to the poor is work -- hard work. Both my parents came to the U.S. with absolutely nothing, not even good comprehension of the language. Yet they both busted their rears so that my siblings and I would have better lives, and I work hard so that my children will have an even better opportunity.

Don't blame the lack of Internet knowledge on ISPs. I'd rather see privated completely deregulated electrical service as well.

Interesting.. all the neg. and missing the point

[maillemaker]

I'm surprised at all the negativity about this.

I'm also suprised at the lack of debate at the /real/ meat in this article - the fact that the big ISPs have already lobbied in places to hobble the speed of such WiFi networks.

I think this is going to become a huge issue as WiFi and WiMax take off.

My subdivision has some 500 houses in it. If half of them get high speed internet in some form, at $50/month they are paying out some $12,500 a month collectively for high speed internet access.

What if our subdivision decided to set up it's own WiFi network? Yeah, I can see the ISPs getting real nervous about this.

Also, I can see Cell Phone companies getting VERY nervous about this. If WiFi internet access becomes free and widespread, you won't need the cellular network anymore to make wireless phone calls. Just a portable wireless IP phone.

No wonder the big Telecom industries are out to squelch this.

Steve

Restriction?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why the hell is there a 144Kbps restriction?

I also live in Hurricane country.

[LWATCDR]

So I do understand. But "Frankly, if we could get our fair share of royalties for letting all the oil/gas be mined on and off our coast...get the 40%-50% that other states do when natural resources like oil are harvested (many interior states)...revenue that we've not had, but, should have for years..."
Those land off the coast doesn't belong to the states it belongs to the federal government. That being said I am all for LA and Mississippi getting it to rebuild.
Levee's for a CAT 5? Which CAT 5? 195mph? or 250mph? CAT 5 is doesn't have a maximum so saying it will withstand a CAT 5 is sort of wishful thinking.

Having been through 3 hurricanes in the last 13 months I have a clue to how big a mess it is. We got lucky in that we didn't get any major flooding or storm surge but the weeks without power, the destroyed homes, and so on is enough. We still have people in Fema trailers from last year storms trying to get there homes fixed.
Good luck.
Get a new Mayor and Gov. They sucked. Our Mayor had our school buses prepositioned at the shelters to evacuate everyone last year and did the same this year. They also used them to evacuate anyone that was too poor to leave on their own before the storm. Also we have every assisted care facility and hospital as part of our emergence action plan. Not to mention we had food and water and sanitation at all of our shelters and enough shelter space outside of surge zones. We had not had a direct hit here in 40+ years before last year but they still had prepared better than New Orleans and the State of LA. I know this because a friend of mine works at our EOC.
BTW my local church sent about 150 people the help in Mississippi. Other groups from our faith went to LA as well. I believe we sent about 5000 people in total and a few million in cash. Of course not a month after we went we got hit by Wilma.

export the corruption

[SlashSquatch]

New Orleans is ranked eighth on this most dangerous cities list as of 2004 [morganquitno.com]. That's pre-hurricane data. My sources have their state and local governments as one of the most corrupt in the US. Would you walk around this city with a laptop? You could paint a target on your back too.

As Tulane Law student who has to go back to NOLA

[Anonymous Coward]

As Tulane Law student who has to go back to NOLA in January I can safely say I have more pressing concerns like whether or not I will have electricity. My apartment survived Katrina (I live in the Garden District surrounded by 150 year old mansions that have survived MANY hurricanes), but power is sketchy at best in the city, wild dogs walk the street, houses are still being burglarized, the cops are as useless as ever, the mayor is corrupt, the city is run by morons because (read Democrats) elected into office by the lowest common denominator. I cant wait to graduate so I can NEVER come back again.

Tulane that giant tool of an institution plans to charge those who lost their apartments more for housing than Harvard or Columbia and they plan to stick these people on god damn cruise ships a million miles from the school. I dread what awaits me in January and as a 2L I cant transfer to another school and am totally stuck.

And to think Im going 100k into debt for this!

Free internet access will do very little for me. I guess thats 40 bucks a month I wont have to spend, but knowing NOLA and its government any service they do ultimately provide will suck and rarely work.

Re:What I want to know is . . .

[Celandro]

Yes.. 2000+ years ago..

From http://patentpending.blogs.com/patent_pending_blog /2005/06/the_fire_truck.html [blogs.com]

In the early days of Rome a real estate investor/ extortionist named Crassus used a team of firefighters in an effective scheme. There was no public firefighting service at that time, so when a building was on fire, Crassus and his team would show up with their water pump. Before fighting the fire, Crassus would make a very low offer on the building, and to neighboring building owners. If the owners refused, Crassus let the building burn and spread to neighboring buildings, and would later make an even lower offer. If the owner agreed to sell the property, the firefighters would try to put the fire out. Crassus became very wealthy with this scheme, owned a good portion of the city of Rome, bought his way into political office, and ruled Rome as Triumvirate with Pompey and Julius Caesar. As Triumvirate, the area he ruled was centered in Syria, and extended over a wide region. Envisioning riches beyond belief and military glory, Crassus led an expedition against the Parthian Empire, in which he was killed and his legion was wiped out.

Re:They meant "free" WiFi

[Anonymous Coward]

We hear these same arguments every damn time a muni wifi story comes up. Look, your econ 101 arguments about competition in the market don't work with communications networks. First is the massive infrastucture costs to set up anything beyond a one or two coffee shop network. That's a big barrier to entrance that means only the big boys can play, i.e SBC, Time Warner, or the local government. Second thing is people and emergency services rely on communications networks so they tend to be tightly regulated. High infrastructure costs + regulation = monopoly. It's the same deal for energy. How many communications or energy companies do you have competing for your business? In my city of >1 million it's still one each. Frankly in this day in age I'd rather have my wifi in the hands of the local corrupt politician than some megacorp. It's easier to get a politician's notice than get the billions in shares to make a corporation take notice.

Re:Hmmmm......

[omegaman_1]

You're still wrong. Frankly, I am incenced that this debate regarding rebuilding New Orleans even exists. If this were Miami, New York, Boston, Washington D.C. or San Francisco, there would be no debate. New Orleans has more locations on the National Historic Registry than any other city in the US. -- more than Boston, Philadelphia, New York or Washington. And the loss of South Louisiana's ports and oil resources would obviously be devastating to the entire country. Here is an important truth: Katrina did NOT flood New Orleans. The flood walls, which were purportedly designed by our federal government (US Army Corps of Engineers) to stand up to a storm the size of Katrina, failed. When I walk around my 100 year old flooded home, I know it was flooded for the first time in its history by the failures of men and not the effects of nature. That's right. my home is 100 years old and it's young for New Orleans. It's never flooded. Like most New Orleanians, I was born here. ALL of my family is from here here as well. This is typical. The wetlands loss and subsidence in South LA is a well known problem. It is also a problem of the last 50 years that has been entirely created by people. (Canals were dug to support oil and gas exploration creating massive erosion. Missippi River flood controls stopped the depositing of sediment which keeps the marshes growing and not sinking) The fact is, the wetlands and adequate flood control are both fixable issues. Louisiana residents have known about it for years and we've spoken as loudly as we could to a largely unsympathetic audience. We need committed funding and action now. There's even a model for doing it right in the Netherlands. Portions of that nation are far far lower than New Orleans. Yet the Dutch have learned through experience, ingenuity, and committment how to work with nature and save their country. As one Dutch engineer pointed out in the local Times Picayune, if our nation has the ability to move vehicles on Mars, surely we can solve this problem too. Unfortunately for California residents, we probably don't have the technology to mitigate the impacts of an eventual earthquake there any time soon. Maybe those folks should move to someplace safer; they must be nuts to live in such an obviously dangerous place. If Congress can't commit to a Category 5 flood control system for South LA, then they should stop funding all flood control efforts and cut off aid for repopulating New Orleans now. Instead pay off all of our mortgages, give us all one way tickets and some moving money and call it a day. Why would any business or individual rebuild here permanently without that committment? And if Congress doesn't fix this then shame on them all. We rebuilt Europe and Japan after WWII. We spend billions year after year on aid to other nations. Yet we can't commit to rebuilding a city of our own? A city filled with hardworking taxpayers who have apparently committed the mortal sin of loving their home.