New Orleans is set to become the first city in America to provide 'free' wireless internet access. The city, which flooded after an undermaintained and delapidated levee system failed, hopes to "jump start" economic recovery by providing a tax-payer funded internet service. Hopefully looters were able to stock up on WiFi devices.

The system, which Mayor C. Ray Nagin [of Houston] is scheduled to announce at a news conference today, also will be used by law enforcement and for an array of city government functions, such as speeding approval of building permits...

Cities around the country are studying or have deployed "wireless fidelity," or WiFi, networks, because they often provide more affordable Internet access than private carriers and can help bridge the digital divide in low-income areas or because high-speed Internet access is not provided by either telephone or cable companies.

Telephone and cable companies oppose the moves as unfair, taxpayer-funded competition and have successfully lobbied several states to prohibit or restrict the networks.

Louisiana is one of those states, prohibiting any locality from offering Internet connection speeds of more than 144 kilobits per second, about twice the speed of dial-up but one-tenth to one-twentieth of what is typically provided via digital subscriber line (DSL) or cable-modem services.

The New Orleans system will feature 512-kilobit-per-second speed, which city officials said is the most the network can handle efficiently at first. Because the city is under a state of emergency, it can skirt existing law.

Wow, apparently you can do just about anything as long as you declare a "state of emergency" first. And by putting the WiFi access points on top of light poles, they're less likely to be disrupted by the next flood. Am I the only one who thinks that a city that has money to blow on 'free internet' doesn't need federal assistance?