A discussion about the Telecommunication Industry

The FCC wants more people to have high speed Internet access.  The US is currently 15^th out of 30 industrialized nations with respect to percentage of people with broadband Internet access.  To help boast that number, the FCC is floating a plan auction off additional airwave spectrum frequencies and require the winner to provide free wireless basic Internet access.  It’s not clear what company might be interested in offering such a service.  Building a national network would be very expensive and while the free service would generate revenue from advertising it’s not clear this would be a profitable enterprise.  Many cities have tried free wireless Internet schemes, but almost all have failed. Some of the most logical companies to try such an endeavor, particularly, AT&T and Verizon, have just bought licenses for next generation wireless services and might not be in the market for additional frequency licenses.