On 9/23/07, Dustin Puryear <dustin at puryear-it.com> wrote: > That WOULD be interesting to see here in Louisiana. Also, based on our > local penchant for natural disasters, it seems like such a network would > be useful in several ways, not unlike ham radio.
Didn't they try that in new orleans after katrina? The local government let it stay for a while until the local ISPs complained that it was taking away from their potential profits. The bummer thing about it is that the local government was funding the mesh network and apparently there is a law that says local government can't supplement local utilities or something like that. But, if a business or a local LUG were to pay for such a thing, oh, they would be able to control it as they see fit. Cause they would want to make sure they weren't liable for any problems that arise, etc, etc. The internet access would have to be provided somewhere and someone would have to pay for/provide it. I read an article a couple years ago, I googled a bit for it but couldn't find it, but it talked about a company or the local government providing wireless mesh internet access across a small city and farmland in idaho somewhere. The reason they could do this without litigation or challenges from large ISPs is because the large ISPs don't see any value or need to worry about fighting to provide service in that area because there is no revenue for them. however, in a large city with several million people, lots of revenue and lots of reasons to fight local "free" networks.
