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Google Updates New Orleans Imagery

Glenn Letham — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 19:25:56 +0000

An interesting start to the week as Google’s John Hanke offers up an explanation on the recent outcry concerning the company’s decision to use pre-Katrina imagery in Google Maps. If you haven’t followed the story (we commented as did many others), users recently noticed (and freaked out about) that Google was serving pre-Katrina images.

The problem is that many in New Orleans feel that this was hiding the fadct that the rebuilding has taken place at a snails pace, if at all.

Today, Google’s Hanke has provided his explanation – also, he notes the imagery was updated in Maps and Earth on Sunday evening See details here .

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EarthLink Saves Big Easy From BellSouth

WebProNews Staff — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 22:23:32 +0000

EarthLink will continue to provide free wireless access in New Orleans by assuming management of the city’s WiFi network and investing some $15 million over three years to improve and build out that network.

It looks like Greg Meffert won’t face jail time after all. The CIO for the city of New Orleans made no mistake in stating how strongly he felt about maintaining availability of the wireless network for citizens, despite rumblings from BellSouth.

WiFiNetNews blogger Glenn Fleishman referenced BellSouth’s recent history of publicly-nice, privately-hostile behavior in his latest blog post. The telecom company, soon to merge with AT&T in a $67 billion deal, wants Meffert to turn off the free wireless Internet access now that the danger of Katrina has passed.

At the core of the issue rests legislation passed by New Orleans legislature, which limits municipalities from offering broadband networks with speeds faster than 144kbps. The network currently active in New Orleans operates at 512kbps, and EarthLink will maintain that when they take over private management of that Internet access.

USA Today reported on the offer, which comes on the heels of BellSouth’s requests that Meffert shut down the network:

More than 10,000 people are using the service. Among them: police officers, law firms, restaurants, bars and coffee shops. EarthLink will keep providing the service for free, but plans to sell faster premium services in time.

Jeff Battcher, a BellSouth spokesman, says that his company has spent “tens of millions of dollars” repairing the local network, “which any Wi-Fi network would rely on.”

Fleishman answered Battcher’s comment at length in his post:

BellSouth said that the Wi-Fi networks relies on access that BellSouth spent tens of millions of dollar repairing. Which, in fact, they were obliged to repair under state and federal regulations for incumbent operators that grant a monopoly in exchange for certain kinds of services being universally available or available on a certain basis, so let’s not pretend that this gives them special rights.

The incumbents have fought hard for unregulated broadband, and have won practically every decision they’ve needed. It’s thus doubly irritating to hear them complain that they’re spending money to build services other people use, such as T-1s. If the service is regulated, they are subject to strict tariffs and conditions. If the service is unregulated, they’re competing in the market. In either case, they have to spend that rebuilding money if they want to maintain their rights.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

Big Easy Broadband Battles BellSouth

WebProNews Staff — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 22:11:13 +0000

Hurricane Katrina prompted New Orleans’ chief information officer to open the municipal 512kbps mesh network to anyone who wanted to access it, but now faces the prospect of a shutdown and legal fight prompted by BellSouth.

“If I have to go to jail, I guess I will,” New Orleans’ CIO Greg Meffert said in a Red Herring report. “If they really want to play that game, I guess they are right. But we simply cannot turn off these few lifelines we have to our city and businesses.”

The game is Legal Chicken, and it illustrates the fallout from local and state legislatures passing telecom-friendly laws that ban municipalities from competing with telcos on providing Internet access. Despite continued telephone and Internet outages in the city, the telcos want this network shut down. Now.

“The vendors, the BellSouths of this world, are not only going to force us back, making our existing Wi-Fi illegal, but also they want to close a loophole for emergencies so that we would not do this again,” said Meffert in the article.

Blogger Craig Settles thinks city governments have to be aware of telcos meddling in the legislatures:

Cities do well to maintain their vigilance on legislation in Congress and statehouses which impacts municipal broadband so they don’t get blindsided. Remember House Bill 30 in Pennsylvania which restricts these projects? This was a bill that had been lying around dormant for over a year before Verizon decided to revive it in response to Philadelphia Wireless.

Settles’ observation refers to the bill that nearly derailed Phildelphia’s plans for a city-wide wireless network. Eventually the bill was reworked to include an exemption for Philadelphia.

New Orleans and Philadelphia’s governments did not keep their eyes on the telcos’ operations in the state capitals. Other municipalities should learn a lesson from their examples.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.