“New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin has announced an unprecedented project wherein the entire city will be blanketed by free WiFi within a year. Due to the almost complete devastation of the city’s infrastructure, the free Internet access is one attempt to turn the city’s stagnant economy into one of growth and independence. Like in most large-scale networks, the New Orleans routers will be placed on top of street lights and provide citizens and businesses with 512 kbps download speeds until the city’s state of emergency has been lifted. In accordance with state laws that restrict government-owned Internet providers, speeds will drop to a paltry 128 kbps once the city has returned to some level of normalcy.”
I’m sorry, didn’t Ray Nagin just announce about a month or so ago that the city would have to lay off a very large percentage of its’ employees? Police Officers, Firefighters, etc…many of them were laid off because of the pressure the city was feeling based on the costs to rebuild.
So, basically, there’s a single woman down in N.O. with two or three kids that now has free WiFi (no computer, mind you) and no one to protect her. No need to worry, though, I’m sure Nagin will come to her aid if she needs it.
