14 DAY TRIAL // The city of New Orleans or, better said, what's left of it, could be the scene where a new chapter in broadband history will be written. The hurricane-stricken city will most likely offer universal wireless Internet service. This could mean that for the first time, a city inside the United States will benefit from such a large Wi-Fi network, installed by the city and which is available for free.
The first segments of the network started operating in the French Quarter and central business district and should cover the entire city within a year, according to Mayor Ray Nagin.
Most of the necessary equipment will be supplied by companies that volunteered to help in, companies like Intel Corp, Tropos Networks and Pronto Networks. Pushing technology forward is an obvious sign about the idea businesses and the city are trying to send to users and that is of a city linked to the world through a wireless connection. This could be also a sign that things are getting back to normal.
Only about 10 percent of New Orleans' pre-storm population of half a million people has returned since Hurricane Katrina struck on August 29. As a result of the storm, over 80 percent of the city was flooded.