EarthLink's human voice, its unsigned Earthling blog, provides some details, nice and Big Easy: The New Orleans network is still a work in progress in that EarthLink has regulatory hurdles to get through, but it seems unlikely any bureaucrat has the least interest in impeding them. Once a telecom franchise license is approved, EarthLink will start building 15 square miles (not the several hundred square miles of a 15-mile-radius described in a news report) that will have 300 Kbps of free access. EarthLink hopes this will be used beyond plain Internet connectivity for VoIP given the state of phone service. (Not a knock on BellSouth--rebuilding plans are still in the works which makes it hard to restore service.) They'll also have a 1 Mbps (most likely around $20/month) service aimed at commercial institutions and city workers.
Hi Glenn -
Thanks for picking up the New Orleans details. I write Earthling. I don't mean to be unsigned or mysterious; I just made my authoring username 'earthling' in the blog software and it stuck. There are some details about me in the 'about me' page, and if there's anything else you'd like to know feel free to drop me a line. But it's all just me.
Nice to meet you.