US Considers Some Free Wireless Broadband Service

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday March 9, 2010 @04:29PM from the get-what-you-don't-pay-for dept.

gollum123 writes "US regulators may dedicate spectrum to free wireless Internet service for some Americans to increase affordable broadband service nationwide, the Federal Communications Commission said on Tuesday. The FCC provided few details about how it would carry out such a plan and who would qualify, but will make a recommendation under the National Broadband Plan set for release next week. The agency will determine details later. One way of making broadband more affordable is to 'consider use of spectrum for a free or a very low-cost wireless broadband service,' the FCC said in a statement." Nobody has more than a couple of paragraphs on this story. None of the press coverage mentions the obvious likelihood that any such free network would be heavily filtered, censored, and monitored.

1 of 111 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Re:This isn't new by mrsteveman1 · 2010-03-09 16:59 · Score: 4, Informative

Here is the company http://www.m2znetworks.com/
They originally wanted a 15 year exclusive spectrum license, and as you can see from their website, even now after their original plan was totally rejected, they're entirely committed to filtering things to make it "family friendly" if they get approval as a licensee.