According to a report in The Washington Post, BellSouth was so unhappy after the city deployed its municipally-owned wireless network last week that the company rescinded its offer to donate one of its buildings to house the city police headquarters. The head of BellSouth's Louisiana division allegedly withdrew the company's building offer in a conversation with New Orleans' director of homeland security, Terry Ebbert. A spokesman for BellSouth denied that the company retracted the donation and said that BellSouth is still willing to work with the mayor. BellSouth is part of the movement of large telephone companies who are not in support of city-owned wireless networks. The companies are lobbying against their deployment, arguing that they create taxpayer-funded competition.
For more on BellSouth's reported discontent:
- check out this piece in The Washington Post