As if Katrina wasn’t bad enough… now Earthlink is jumping ship in New Orleans

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New Orleans is about to lose its municipal Wi-Fi network as EarthLink plans to halt its participation in the citywide project on May 18, an EarthLink spokesman said Friday.

The Internet service provider had tried a three-pronged approach before it decided to terminate the network, said Chris Marshall, EarthLink’s VP of corporate communications. First, EarthLink tried to sell the network outright. Second, it sought to transfer ownership of the network to the city of New Orleans. Finally, it tried to transfer the network to a third party. All three approaches failed.

“We were unable to find a buyer — either the city or an outside buyer,” Marshall said, noting that New Orleans city officials and customers have been informed that EarthLink will remove its network. Subscribers are being offered alternate EarthLink high-speed broadband or dial-up services in place of Wi-Fi.

Earlier this month, EarthLink finalized moves to transfer its Wi-Fi networks in Corpus Christi, Texas, and Milpitas, Calif., to those cities’ governments.

EarthLink still has Wi-Fi network arrangements with Philadelphia and Anaheim, Calif., and while those arrangements remain in place, EarthLink has indicated it would like to terminate all of its municipal networks. The company has said it is in discussions with Philadelphia and Anaheim concerning the networks.

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You can read:

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The project goes dark May 18 after the Internet service provider said it was unable to find a buyer.
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On the InformationWeek website. It is an article written by W. David Gardner.

I kinda got bent out of shape when Antone Gonsalves wrote:

With customers unwilling to overhaul their infrastructure to migrate from 802.11a/b/g technology

As if it is the customers’ problem and not the problem of funding viable means of technological advancements within the infrastructure. Talk about a pothole in a freeway and BOY HOWDY! all the funds start flooding into the politics… But…something is needed FOR THE PEOPLE and all the sudden there’s a funding drought. Come on Congresspeople and politicos, you know as well as we do that the problem isn’t with the holes in the technology. The problem is that YOU know if the people get the tools to communicate and make informed decisions you won’t be able to hijack their wallets the way you hijack every other public institution INCLUDING: Politics, Schools, Housing, Public Transportation, Waste Mgt, Environmental initiatives, the telecommunications industry, and the Natural resources of this planet {which are being rapidly depleted NAMELY:> OIL}

SF is a very expensive place to be. I am continually reminded, as I do live here. Yet for some strange reason, we have all the revenue flowing through on a daily basis to implement incredible galas and global spectacles but not enough to implement a Citywide-WiFi network, huh… Next thing you know they’ll try to sell me a bridge….