New Orleans to have free wireless service

Needless to say, it has been a rough few months for New Orleans. Things are starting to look up as people are moving back in, the mess is getting cleaned up and some sense of normalcy is slowly beginning to return. Helping the city rebuild and revitalize will be a new wireless network. The network will offer free Internet service to individuals and businesses, and yes, for free.

Ray Nagin, the Mayor of New Orleans who must be relishing every chance he gets to share good news, will unveil the details today. Most of the equipment needed for the network has been donated by companies from around the country. The network is already in place and working in the central business district and the French Quarter. Plans for expansion throughout the rest of the city will be part of the announcement by Mayor Nagin.

Free wireless will be at 512 kilobytes per second, for the time that the city remains under a state of emergency. Once the emergency status is over, the speed will be dropped to 128 kbps due to laws restricting government-owned Internet service providers.