Would you like free wireless broadband? Sure you would. As you might guess, though, free broadband is bad for the broadband provider business. In a weird twist of logic, broadband providers argue free broadband is bad for consumers, too.

In a move that turned out to be as self-serving as it was beneficial to US citizens – hey, the citizens will take what they can get these days – FCC Chairman Kevin Martin appeared, for about five minutes, to do something on behalf of the people rather than the phone companies by proposing the 2155-2175 MHz-band of spectrum be allocated for 768 kbps wireless access. In terms of capabilities, that's kind of slow, but matches the slowest options of incumbent providers.

It also matched the speed offered up by M2Z Networks, a broadband startup headed by former FCC official John Muleta, whose ad-supported and content-filtered broadband proposal was rejected by the FCC last year. Martin's proposal – if history is any indication – would likely also come with content filtering. Because the FCC was slow to even review M2Z's proposal, Muleta sued the FCC to make a decision, likely not garnering any good will from Martin in the process. Muleta once suggested the FCC was blocking wireless competition, or at least free services--wouldn't it be interesting if this was why?

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