NEW ORLEANS—Whereas BellSouth Corp. tried legal maneuvers to shut down New Orleans’ free municipal Wi-Fi network even though the city’s hurricane-weary residents and thousands of relief and rebuilding workers had no other means of Internet access, EarthLink Inc. went after the city’s business, offering to build a Wi-Fi network with both free and paid-for service.
And EarthLink’s strategy paid off, as the New Orleans City Council approved an ordinance for the company to build a 15 square-mile Wi-Fi network to replace the city-owned network.
EarthLink said the new mesh network will provide advertising-free access at speeds up to 300 kilobits per second at no charge for a limited time while the city rebuilds, along with 1-megabit-per-second service at an “affordable” rate, rumored to be about $20 per month.
“We are excited to welcome the investment of EarthLink to better connect our citizens and visitors through Wi-Fi,” said recently re-elected New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. “This is another indication that New Orleans is moving to the next generation of technology.”
Vowing to provide open access to the Wi-Fi network, EarthLink said it plans to enable multiple, competing providers to offer their services to consumers and businesses over its network.
“EarthLink is doing its part to help rebuild the Crescent City and enable residents, visitors and the thousands of workers to stay connected with low-cost broadband service,” said Donald Berryman, executive vice president of EarthLink and president of the company’s Municipal Networks unit.
Regarding equipment, Earthlink said it plans to deploy Tropos Networks Inc.’s MetroMesh Wi-Fi routers along Tropos Control, an end-to-end configuration, monitoring and maintenance tool suite. In addition, EarthLink said it will use Motorola Inc.’s MOTOwi4 portfolio of products, including its Canopy high-speed backhaul and Wi-Fi mesh network equipment.
Though EarthLink hasn’t said when construction will begin, the sooner it gets under way, the better. Prior to Hurricane Katrina, the city had installed a wireless mesh network for crime surveillance and security. After Katrina, the city’s Chief Technical Officer Greg Meffert put the mesh network to work as a free communications tool for those who needed it. For the duration of the city’s state of emergency, the wireless network’s bandwidth would be limited to 512 kbps, but according to Louisiana state law, the bandwidth must be lowered to 128 kbps once the emergency is declared over.
Meffert and Nagin had asserted that the city’s incumbent telecommunications provider, BellSouth, through telecom lobbyists, was pushing for legislative measures to shut down the Wi-Fi network since the network would cut into BellSouth’s sales. Meffert insisted that the network had become the communications lifeline of the city, and he swore he would not shut it down.
In late March, as rumors of EarthLink’s plans surfaced, BellSouth maintained that its Wi-Fi strategy was unfairly portrayed by media reports. “Contrary to what has been reported, BellSouth is not trying to shut down the city of New Orleans’ Wi-Fi system,” stated Merlin Villar, director of external affairs at BellSouth.
The city council’s decision to let EarthLink build a private Wi-Fi network ought to put the battle between the city of New Orleans and BellSouth to rest. No doubt, Nagin’s re-election impacted the council’s decision, since a new mayoral administration in city hall would have likely meant a replacement for Meffert, who has fought tooth and nail to keep free citywide Wi-Fi available while the city rebuilds in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Had Meffert been replaced by a CTO from a new administration, a new communications plan would have likely ensued.
