Angry BellSouth Withdrew Donation, New Orleans Says — Angry with New Orleans offering free wireless Internt, this is what they get. My column in Marketwatch discusses how this and other events shows that we will never have free access in the USA while these guys run things. These municipalities are going to have to fight back.
Hours after New Orleans officials announced Tuesday that they would deploy a city-owned, wireless Internet network in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, regional phone giant BellSouth Corp. withdrew an offer to donate one of its damaged buildings that would have housed new police headquarters, city officials said yesterday.
found by Ima Fish
John’s article is pretty good, here’s a cache of it:
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:_LzHLBb6CasJ:www.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp%3Fcolumn%3DJohn%2BDvorak%27s%2BSecond%2BOpinion%26siteid%3Dvert%26dist%3Dvertmembbutton++%22Municipal+WiFi+efforts+unlikely+to+survive%22&hl=en
Perhaps New Orleans can open up bidding for the local telco consession since most everything has been destroyed anyhow!
Two words:
Eminent Domain
Sounds like sour grapes to me on the part of Bell South
Perhaps someday we will be drug, kicking and screaming, into the twentyfirst century.
Calling government provided internet access free is inaccurate. Money to provide the service does not just appear in the government wallet.
Why on earth would anybody think the city of New Orleans could, much less should, operate a wireless internet network?
WIFI as a utility is not a bad idea. We pay for trash pickup here in Marion Kentucky and I pay to have Internet access through BellSouth. WIFI sounds like a nice utility to have here in our small town.
In a city like New Orleans where we did see what happens when a utility shuts down (BellSouth) it would be nice to have free access WIFI if the city paid BellSouth to cover the city.
If the technology fits properly into a situation why not use it. The PR for BellSouth and New Orleans could be grand.
I don’t know why you think a government service here will accomplish anything. If you want the best quality of service do you go to the Post Office? Most likely government wifi will lock in and subsidize a poor technology, making lots of money for the corporation that bribes them into doing it(Oracle comes to mind.)