Slashdot Mirror
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."
Will this be the first case of never-ending SOE similar to the never-ending Beta?
This way consumers get to use the service first, and companies get to roll out their services without having to abide strict regulations and/or an actual committment.
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
Free WiFi while significant portions of their population are still displaced and / or homeless.
Perhaps their priorities are a bit backward?
This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
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.
I honestly hope this isn't their only solution for hurricanes / floods in the future.
I did find it useful the other day, to go to Cooter Brown's and use their wireless while watching some football, and drinking some good beer...
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
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.
...for all five residents.
Cool! Now New Orleans residents will have the connectivity they need in order to email an SOS to FEMA, so they can come rescue them!
This is much a better solution than spending that money on something as trivial as a safe levee system or housing for homeless people. This free wi-fi is actually working out quite well for them.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Not only have they lost customers and equipment...now they have to compete with the Gov't...so much for free enterprise
Most of the city still doesn't have phone service. Getting enough WiFi up that people can use VoIP and get some basic web services will be a big help.
That money would produce a safer city with more jobs if it was left to the citizens.
Last I checked, in this country, the government is composed of -- gasp -- citizens, not space aliens from Uranus. At what point did Americans forget the "of, by, and for the people" routine? Why should a state or federal authority be telling the citizens of a town that they can't do whatever they blinking well please as far as public works projects? So the _citizens_ get together and say, golly, we can all chip in ten bucks and we'll have a wonderful benefit for our community that is worth far more than ten bucks to each citizen.
What's next? Gee, sorry Podunksville, you can't build a public park with a toilet. You need to sell the land off to a private developer so you can have the privilege of paying to sit on the grass or take a leak.
I don't see how this is any different.
Contrary to what the government and the media would have us believe, New Orleans and the south in general is still a disaster area. New Orleans specifically still is, for the most part, the same as it was when Katrina hit. Alot of places more "important" for tourism and business have been cleaned up, but the other areas like the Ninth Ward still look like warzones. The State of Emergency may last for years.
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.
Y'know, if the same mentality were applied to some existing government services . . .
(Caller): Help! My house is on fire!
(Phone voice): Do you have a FlameOut (tm) customer ID number?
(Caller): No, but my house is burning! My children are in there--Please help me!
(Phone voice): I'm sorry, but since you're not a FlameOut (tm) customer, I can't help you. However, we will be rolling our FlameOut (tm) Wagons to protect your neighbor, who I see is a subscriber in good standing. Thank you for notifying us of this condition and have a nice day.
{CLICK}
November Scientific American makes it clear that, owing to bad decisions made by the Army Corps of Engineers years ago, the timescale to solve the problems of New Orleans could be many years. Improving communications throughout the city will not make a significant dent in the funds available to solve the delta problems - which could run into tens of billions of dollars.
Pining for the fjords
This is the same New Orleans that had over 30% of its PD leave or actively engage in the unlawful activities plaguing it post-Katrina. This is the same New Orleans which is legendary for its corrupt local government and in a state that is almost synonymous with bad government to most southerners.
Yet it's going to do a "good job" running WiFi. One of these days, the starry-eyed true believers will come to the painful realization that "democracy" has no proven track record on keeping governments working for the people and that local governments are one of the last groups you'd want to trust to run your communication network.
Besides, let's just go ahead and put telescreens in our homes. It just blows my mind how anyone can in one breath whole-heartedly support government operation and/or ownership of the com. network and then complain about the Bush administration wiretapping us all a la 1984. Why not go ahead and put your toddler in a locked room with a dingo and then get self-righteously pissed off when your toddler gets mauled and eaten? Afterall, it's THEIR fault, right?
Bullshit. You give the government control over the com. network on that scale and when your precious civil liberties go out the window, you'll be one of the few victims of bad government to legitimately laughed at by succeeding generations. The government will assert its sovereignty and say, "it's our network, use it our way or get off." Then you'll look around and there won't be any competition because your tax dollars subsidize the network to the point that the private sector cannot compete.
All in the name of giving "poor" people (our poor are middle class by African standards) access to a network that all too often their volunary refusal to make use of their socialized education opportunities have rendered them incapable of exploiting.
Click here or a puppy gets stomped!
When I was involved in a week long power outage in Norfolk are after hurricane Isabel (2003) I found battery powered AM radio to be the best source of information. The announcers worked overtime and did a great job of letting us know what was going one. NOLA has WWl which can be picked up over much of the US - I listen to it to get first hand info on whats happening there. It's simple, cheap, and works.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Why the hell is there a 144Kbps restriction?
It seems to me they have more important goals than providing free wifi at this point. I can think of several:
-schools
-police
-electricity
-water
-sewage
I could go on, but you get the point.
-Ncik
"A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
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.
Sweet, now I'll be able to play mario Kart when I go back to NO on christmas.
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
Wonderful. Now there will live streaming web cams from every balcony, every window, and probably every bathroom. It's just what the internet needed more of...on the government dollar.
Contact Gillware for all your Data Recovery Needs! Data Recovery
My understanding is that it is already deployed in the French Quarter, and will be citiwide in a year. But at 512kbps now, and 128kbps in a year (after the state of emergency is over) - seems rather slow. But not bad for free service while roaming around town. :) In fact here is the entire article from CNN to save you a click: http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/internet/11/29/wirele ss.neworleans.ap/index.html
Tuesday, November 29, 2005; Posted: 2:40 p.m. EST (19:40 GMT)
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- Hurricane-ravaged New Orleans is starting the nation's first free wireless Internet network owned and run by a major city, a move aimed at boosting the city's stalled economy.
Mayor Ray Nagin made the announcement at a late morning news conference.
Similar projects elsewhere have been stalled by stiff opposition from telephone and cable television companies aimed at discouraging competition from public agencies.
Nagin said the system started operation Tuesday in the central Business District and the French Quarter. It is to be available throughout the city in about a year.
The system uses hardware mounted on street lights to cover the city.
Most of the equipment was donated by three companies: Intel Corp., Tropos Networks and Pronto Networks.
The system will operate at 512 kilobits per second as long as the city remains under a state of emergency.
That will be slowed once the state of emergency is over -- that date has not been determined -- to 128 kps in accordance with state law, which restricts government-owned Internet service.
Horns are really just a broken halo.
FEMA did studies that showed the levees would break and up to 60,000 people would die. The local government was given tons of money to fix the levees, and spent it facilitating the building of casinos. Your information is several decades out of date.