I’m very pleased to report that we’ve been approved to build out and support a Wi-Fi network in New Orleans, thanks to a New Orleans City Council ordinance this week. More on the project’s history here.

The network will have two tiers — a free (and ad-free) service at up to 300kbps during the city’s rebuilding efforts, and a paid service at 1mbps up/down. EarthLink will also allow other providers to offer their services over the network, allowing for open access and competition.

I’ll update this post as I have more information. I’m also looking forward to a guest blog entry from Brian Oberkirch today, of the Slidell Hurricane Damage Blog and Weblogs Work.

Update: New Orleans’ Chief Information Officer (CIO) Greg Meffert shared a few thoughts via e-mail:

“When we first brought up the free Wi-Fi network, I honestly never imagined it would become so controversial to the big vendors or conversely so important to the people of this city.

Many cities were on their x number committee and stroking their beards and wringing their hands mainly looking at municipal Wi-Fi as a “nice thing”. For us it means so much more than that. Over half a billion dollars worth of telecommunications was destroyed in the storm. Many areas, businesses, and even schools are still without basic telcom due to the city being half up and half still dark.

Wi-Fi is a pretty geeky thing to get hugged over, but I have more than once been recognized in the streets and genuinely gotten handshakes or hugs over this. These same people tell me stories of law firms practicing out of coffee shops, or an advertising company doing business out of a bar because their offices were destroyed. This network has even become not just a lifeline to these folks, but an accidental icon of defiance in a New Orleans that is being reborn again. A better more modern New Orleans than the one that was washed away in the storm.”

[Via Earthling - EarthLink blog]