Not quite a New Urbanism project, but something of great importance for the City of Atlanta is the Wireless Atlanta initiative. The initiative was launched by the City of Atlanta to partner with a service provider to deploy a citywide wireless broadband network called the “muni wifi” program. Wireless Atlanta will offer residents, visitors, and businesses the ability to access the Internet anytime and anywhere within the city and is expected to be deployed in 2008.

In providing city-wide wireless internet access, Atlanta, like Boston, Baltimore, San Francisco and other cities in U.S., hopes to promote tourism, economic development, stimulate technological innovation, and improve the quality and efficiency of city services.

Proposals of three applicants are being evaluated and after a provider is chosen, contract negociacions are expected to be completed no later than the summer of 2007. Deployment of the network is expected to be completed sometime in 2008.

One of the three applicants is EarthLink, the country’s leading citywide wireless network provider headquartered in Atlanta.