Source: Information Week

New Orleans is about to lose its municipal Wi-Fi network as EarthLink plans to halt its participation in the citywide project on May 18, an EarthLink spokesman said Friday.

The Internet service provider had tried a three-pronged approach before it decided to terminate the network, said Chris Marshall, EarthLink's VP of corporate communications. First, EarthLink tried to sell the network outright. Second, it sought to transfer ownership of the network to the city of New Orleans. Finally, it tried to transfer the network to a third party. All three approaches failed.

There's something half-assed about most of these municipal wifi projects, as if the private company involved is almost looking for an excuse to pull out. We tried, they say, we did all we could do. Now just give us your credit card number and those three little numbers on the back of your card, and you'll be back online in no time.