Tech Shout!

On Friday, EarthLink got the permission from the New Orleans City Council to offer a dual level service: the first service is free for a limited time during the city’s rebuilding efforts at a speed of 300kbs and without viewing of advertising, while the paid service will offer higher speeds with a symmetrical, 1 mbps solution for customers that want more bandwidth, EarthLink said.

Earthlink, which is one of the major Internet service providers in the United States will make the network open so that other service providers can offer competing services to users over its infrastructure.

“EarthLink is doing its part to help rebuild the Crescent City and enable residents, visitors and the thousands of workers to stay connected with low cost broadband service,” said Donald Berryman, executive vice president of EarthLink and president of the ISP’s municipal networks unit. “Our Wi-Fi solution reflects our vision of delivering broadband opportunities to diverse communities across the country and helping meet the needs of underserved neighborhoods at the request of cities like New Orleans.”

Soon after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, the city decided to open up the Wi-Fi network that had been used by city workers to the general public. Then late last year the city said it was expanding that network and would continue to offer free access.

However earlier this year reports claimed that BellSouth, the local telephone company in New Orleans, was opposing that plan. Like some other U.S. states, Louisiana law prohibits municipalities from offering communications services that compete with commercial operations. Such laws were often hastily pushed through local governments with the backing of incumbent operators that were worried about the growing enthusiasm for and potential competition from city-sponsored free Wi-Fi networks. New Orleans’ law includes an exception for emergency situations.

BellSouth has largely denied that it has worked against the city’s plans.

More recently, Earthlink’s name came up as a probable operator to set up the network instead of the city of New Orleans. Earthlink said the free offering will only be available for a limited time.

The company also said it plans to deploy Tropos Networks’ MetroMesh WiFi routers on light poles throughout the city that will enable connectivity as well as install Motorola’s MOTOwi4 portfolio of products, including its Canopy high-speed backhaul and WiFi mesh network equipment.

Earthlink has won contracts to build Wi-Fi networks in other cities including Philadelphia and San Francisco.