Reaping another municipal network deal, EarthLink this week got a green light from the New Orleans city council to build a Wi-Fi mesh network for the hurricane-battered city.

The ISP will offer both free and paid wireless Internet access. The free service will be available for a limited time while the city continues its rebuilding efforts. Speeds will be up to 300Kbps, and it will be advertising-free during this period. A 1Mbps service will carry a price tag, and offer customer support and access to a range of EarthLink services.

As is becoming a common practice in other deployments, EarthLink "will enable" (that is, charge a fee to let) competing network and content providers offer their services on the network.

As with EarthLink's networks being deployed in Philadelphia, San Francisco and three other sites, the network will rely on Tropos Networks' Wi-Fi mesh nodes for access and Motorola Canopy radios for the wireless backhaul.

Track wireless happenings on John Cox's blog on our Wireless & Mobile Research Center.