According to C-Net, New Orleans Louisiana is planning to build a Wi-Fi network to provide internet access to the citizens. I have seen some articles that suggest that a municipality is in an extreamly good position to build such as system as they already have the necessary locations for towers (light poles and so forth) and easements (roads) that they need for much of the installation. I have also read studies suggesting that a city may save enough in connectivity costs alone to fund the Wi-Fi. Private carriers argue against such systems, mainly because it will hurt their opportunities to sell in that market.

It will be interesting to see if in the short run the internet access becomes increasingly like broadcast television, freely available. If so, it may over time become more restrictive. If you provide free access to your citizens can you then control what they are able to access, blocking sites that may be deemed inappropriate?

This article was posted on Wednesday, November 30th, 2005 at 3:04 pm