Devastated New Orleans is the first major city to offer free city-owned wireless internet connections to all comers. The service — built mainly on donated equipment — is available in the business district and French Quarter at a time when full telephone service and DSL internet connections have yet to be restored to about half the city following September’s storms and floods.

"Now, with a single step, city departments, businesses and private citizens can access a tool that will help speed the rebuilding of New Orleans as a better, safer and stronger city," Mayor Ray Nagin said in a statement reported in The Washington Post. "This is how technology fuels collaboration, allowing our best ideas to come together so we can speak with one voice."

"The future is already here," William Gibson told National Public Radio in 1999. "It’s just not very evenly distributed." Who would have thought New Orleans would be first to distribute this slice of the future? Telcos, Internet Service Providers and municipalities will be watching closely. If free public WiFi works in New Orleans, can the rest of us be far behind?