Wi-Fi Battle in the Big Easy
Following up on our optimistic look at Wi-Fi in New Orleans from last week, Red Herring now reports that a political storm may soon shut down the wireless network that's helping to keep the Big Easy running.
City CIO Greg Meffert calls the Wi-Fi service the "lifeblood for so many businesses," estimating that more that 15,000 people now use the network for both voice and data, since about a third of the city still lacks even basic phone service.
But telecommunication lobbyists are trying to shut down the network — and Meffert says he expects the state legislature to back their efforts, since state law prohibits the deployment of municipal Wi-Fi.
"The vendors, the BellSouths of this world, are not only going to force us back, making our existing Wi-Fi illegal, but also they want to close a loophole for emergencies so that we would not do this again," Meffert says.
Still, Meffert says he'll fight back, whatever the cost. "If I have to go to jail, I guess I will," he says. "If they really want to play that game, I guess they are right. But we simply cannot turn off these few lifelines we have to our city and businesses."
Going to jail for citywide Wi-Fi, particularly when there's no landline service running to compete with it, would make quite a powerful statement: it'll be interesting to watch how this one plays out over the next few weeks.