Hours after New Orleans officials announced Tuesday that they would deploy a city-owned, wireless Internet network in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, regional phone giant BellSouth Corp. withdrew an offer to donate one of its damaged buildings that would have housed new police headquarters, city officials said yesterday.According to the officials, the head of BellSouth’s Louisiana operations, Bill Oliver, angrily rescinded the offer of the building in a conversation with New Orleans homeland security director Terry Ebbert, who oversees the roughly 1,650-member police force.
Angry BellSouth Withdrew Donation, New Orleans Says
Just as I predicted, BellSouth is pissed. I mean, it’s nice of them to donate a building, don’t get me wrong. That’s not something they had to do by any stretch of the imagination. However, this is the beginning of the battle.
technorati tags: bellsouth, new orleans, wifi, wireless, 802.11, building