New Orleans home brew WiFi network under threat

By Steve Malone

Posted on 5 Apr 2006 at 10:22

New Orleans, still struggling to recover from the effects of Hurricane Katrina that struck last year, has come up with a way to restore Internet communications to the City. As the landline infrastructure is still devastated in parts of the city, the authorities have lashed together a 'mesh' WiFi network that is providing free 512K bandwidth to the residents.

Based on a million dollars worth of donated equipment, the network uses hardware mounted on street lights. The data signals are passed from lamppost to lamppost along a system originally designed for security cameras rather than through WiFi access points plugged into the landline system.

According to the city authorities, the WiFi network is being used by thousands of News Orleans residents every day. However, the network is now under threat. Under a Louisiana State law known as the Fair Competition Act and backed by the local telco Cox/Bell South, local government is prevented from running a WiFi network faster than 128Kbps to prevent it using tax payers money to drive out private operators.

The City has so far been able to circumvent the rules because a clause states that the law is suspended during a state of emergency. Once the state of emergency, which has operated in New Orleans for seven months, is lifted the mesh network will have to be throttled back to 128Kbit/sec - not much better than dial up.

There are moves to get the law repealed, although any change faces stiff opposition from the telecommunications industry. If New Orleans wins, it could open the floodgates to changes in the law in cities across the US. Nevertheless, even if the law stands and the state of emergency is lifted, Greg Meffert, the City's CTO has promised to keep the network up and running for as long as it takes to get New Orleans' infrastructure back in sufficient shape to support modern business, even if it means going to jail.