EarthLink will shut down its municipal wireless network in New Orleans, reports Information Week. The company could not find a buyer for the network, nor could it get the city to take it over. EarthLink launched the 52 square kilometer network covering parts of Orleans parish in December 2006. They provided free and paid service to residents. The free tier had a bandwidth cap of 300 Kbps. EarthLink’s withdrawal from New Orleans is part of the company’s departure from the municipal wireless broadband market.
While a number of firms EarthLink and Kite Networks have abandoned the market (Kite is out of business), others such as DHB Networks have been taking over city networks and even signing up new municipal customers. DHB took over the Longmont, Colorado network from Kite, and recently signed Gahanna and Dublin, both in Ohio, as new partners.
Having just been in New Orleans once again I am shocked by the lack of understanding of the connection between broadband access and economic development. New Orleans in rebuilding unlike any other city has ever had to do in the history of America. NO lost nearly 1/3 of its population and the government has been slow in its overall plan of support for the rebuilding of NO. Some would suggest that the Bush administration does not want to rebuild the areas most devastated by Katrina because it was where the majority of the poorest lived in NO. So now we are presented with the chicken and the egg – how do you build business again when there are no patrons – how do you add patrons when there are no businesses.
The extension of broadband wireless services to the hardest hits areas only makes sense. The 9th, as it is called, is being rebuilt, and the government – whether it is local, state or federal, needs to understand that the retention of this network is critical to the economic development of New Orleans.