http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/avantgo.hts/front/3490854
New Orleans starts free Internet wireless system
Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS — In an attempt to boost its stalled economy, the hurricane-ravaged city of New Orleans is starting the nation's first free wireless Internet network owned and run by a major city.
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 government competition.
Nagin said the system started operation Tuesday in the Central Business District and the French Quarter. It will be available throughout the city in about a year.
The system uses devices mounted on street lights to cover the city.
Most of the equipment was donated by three companies: Intel, Tropos Networks and Pronto Networks. The system will operate at 512 kilobytes 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 restricting government owned Internet service.
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