Posted on December 21, 2006 at 9:18 AM in @earthlink
Note: The below is an archived entry from Earthling, formerly EarthLink's official blog. The blog itself has been decommissioned and is no longer updated, and comments are trackbacks are no longer accepted.
It's been a big week for EarthLink Wi-Fi -- on Tuesday we announced the launch of our network in Milpitas, CA and today we're officially unveiling our New Orleans network.
A quick recap: Back in March, the City of New Orleans asked for EarthLink's help as it faced the possible shutdown of its emergency Wi-Fi network. We agreed to build and run a network at no cost to the city, and the project was approved by the City Council a couple of months later.
The Municipal Wi-Fi team and myself went to New Orleans in September to kick off the project and meet with interested members of the community, and I got to meet some local bloggers and residents over an informal blogger dinner. In November, Schroeder spotted the network's SSID out in the wild, and I went nodespotting on my way through town. Chris found a door tag at his house announcing the arrival of the network, and took EarthLink Wi-Fi with him on the bus.
Today, about nine months from when we got the original request from the City, I'm excited to announce the launch of the new New Orleans Wi-Fi network. It covers approximately 20 square miles, and will continue to expand as additional parts of the city rebuild. Here's a map of the areas it covers. There's free Wi-Fi service at 300 Kbps throughout these areas -- you can log on at https://www.featherwifi.net if you're there right now. And higher speed service at 1 Mbps down/up is available for $21.95/month, $3.95 for an hour, or $15.95 for three days. There's more information in the press release.
We'll be heading down to New Orleans in the new year to celebrate the network launch, and I look forward to hosting another blogger meetup. I'll have more information on that once plans are finalized.