As if New Orleans did not have enough trouble, the Louisiana legislature is threatening to turn off the free WiFi network there, which was initially created as a temporary communication measure in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. It was launched on the assumption that it would eventually be taken over by a corporate partner and turned into a paid service. Such a partnership has not been found so far, and the city is prohibited from running its own public WiFi network faster than 128 Kbps, as this could pose an unfair competitive threat to broadband providers in the area. New Orleans CIO Greg Meffert said that regardless of orders from the legislature, he and the mayor have agreed to keep the network running under city jurisdiction until other arrangements can be made. Report