EarthLink wins bid for New Orleans WiFi network

Shortly after winning approval to build a 15-square mile WIFi network in Philly, Earthlink has now gotten the go ahead to build one in New Orleans, replacing the city's free but slow city-owned network. As with the Philidelphia network, New Orleans' will extend for 15-square miles and should cost users about $20 a month for 1-megabit-per-second service, although Earthlink says a slower 300 kbs service will be available for free and without advertising while the city rebuilds. No word yet on when deployment of the mesh network will begin, but it will apparently use gear from Tropos Networks with some additional hardware from Motorola's MOTOwi4 line of products.