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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."
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 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.
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.
Take off every sig. For great justice.
Now start distributing $100 laptops to poor ppl.
http://laptop.media.mit.edu/
I'm surprised at all the negativity about this.
/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'm also suprised at the lack of debate at the
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
A work that expires before its copyright never enters the public domain and thus enjoys eternal copyright protection.
Why the hell is there a 144Kbps restriction?
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.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
New Orleans is ranked eighth on this most dangerous cities list as of 2004. 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.
Autonomous Retard -- Is your camp safe? UnsafeCamp.com
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.
Yes.. 2000+ years ago..
g /2005/06/the_fire_truck.html
From http://patentpending.blogs.com/patent_pending_blo
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.
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.