Meffert has met with officials from Cox Communications Inc., one of the city's two local telecommunications service providers, and he said he thinks "they realize we're not competing with them."

But Cox spokeswoman Stephanie Davis said the Atlanta-based company still backs the Louisiana law that limits the throughput of municipal networks. "Nothing's changed," Davis said.

BellSouth Corp., the other local telecommunications carrier, sent a letter to Meffert two weeks ago saying that it "is not trying to shut down" the city's Wi-Fi network but wants it to comply with the current law. Merlin Villar, regional director of BellSouth's New Orleans operations, confirmed last week that the letter represents BellSouth's position on the issue.

Even though New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin previously worked as general manager of Cox's local operations, he has supported the attempts to preserve the existing Wi-Fi speeds, according to Meffert. Meffert said he would back any residents who fight in court for the higher Wi-Fi speeds, even if he loses his CIO job. (Nagin, who appointed him, was seeking a new term as mayor in an initial election held on Saturday.) "If I have to go to jail over this, I will," Meffert said.