Last fall, the FCC denied (pdf) a plan by M2Z networks that would have offered free nationwide broadband to 95% of the country, using a 20MHz chunk of unused spectrum in the 2GHz band. The plan called for the government to provide the needed spectrum for free, and in exchange M2Z would have handed over 5% of the company's revenue. M2Z also promised to offer 384kbps free (content filtered) service and a $20-$30 3Mbps tier to 95% of the country in ten years. While it sounds promising, it's unlikely to ever leave the ground.

We are concerned that unnecessary interference testing would needlessly delay this auction and that this constitutes the very rationale to kill this effort totally -Democrats Ed Markey, Anna Eshoo

Last fall, M2Z argued that FCC loyalty to incumbent operators impacted the decision. The FCC counter-argued that the M2Z plan offered slow speeds, and that M2Z's deployment benchmarks were both "misleading" and "not particularly aggressive." M2Z considered taking their fight to court, but instead lobbied Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) to push the plan through Congress under the guise of the pending Wireless Internet Nationwide for Families Act.

Ultimately, the FCC also crafted their own proposal, which involves auctioning a 25MHz piece of spectrum in the 2155Mhz band (something incumbents wanted), with a 95% free national buildout as an attached condition. Both the original M2Z proposal, the proposed law and the FCC plan involve filtering any content on the free tier that could prove "harmful" to a five year old. From the FCC proposal (pdf), the company who wins the spectrum must implement a system that:While Kevin Martin very much likes the proposal because it falls in line with his personal quest to protect the nation from boobies, incumbents don't want the added competition. T-Mobile has been busy claiming the Time Division Duplex (TDD) technology involved in such a system would cause interference, despite the fact they use the same technology successfully overseas in the Czech Republic and global tests show interference is minimal.

The FCC's smut-free wireless plan got two big thumbs up this week from Eshoo and Edward Markey (D-MA), who penned a letter to the FCC taking aim at T-Mobile's interference claims, and urging the FCC to move forward with the plan. The letter notes that UK regulator OFCOM has already tested the technology and found little to no interference potential. "We are concerned that unnecessary interference testing would needlessly delay this auction and that this constitutes the very rationale to kill this effort totally."

Between free-speech advocates who believe the filters are unconstitutional -- and incumbent wireless lobbyists who don't want the added competition, the project is facing a very steep uphill climb.