Free Broadband

Is Free Broadband access a viable business model? According to a new business start-up, M2Z co-founder, Milo Medin his company will make free access available to 95% of the US.

As you may suspect, in order to do this they will need the help of the Federal Government. Specifically, a valuable chunk of airwaves being auctioned off by the Federal Communications Commission.

According to a statement made in a September 2008, USA Today article, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin says, “He supports the adoption of using Free Broadband.” “He plans to attach a condition to the AWS (Advanced Wireless Service) spectrum that will require the winner to offer Free Broadband service to 95% of the USA with in 10 years.”

How will this business model of giving service a way for free work? The free service will be 786 kbps, the premium service cost just $20 more for faster speeds. In addition, money will be generated by selling ad space on the company’s exclusive browser. A similar business model to the failed Wi-Fi public systems in San Francisco and Philadelphia.

Where is the money for such an expensive under taking coming from? Medin’s deep-pocket backers include venture capital firm Klein, Perkins, Caulfield, and Byers located in the Silicon Valley. Whose partners include former Vice President, Al Gore.

M2Z’s biggest opponents are the existing carriers who have spent billions of dollars on their networks and don’t want to have to compete with Free Broadband. Free Broadband could seriously upset the status quo, says Blair Levin, a regulatory analysis. “It would either cause the price to go down, or cause the current providers to really ramp up their service.”

The bigger question is; why if this Free Broadband is a good business model, aren’t companies already doing it. There are thousands of wireless Internet service providers (WISP) through-out the country using unlicensed spectrum to provide service too under served communities across the US. Do they just not have the critical mass to make Free Broadband work?

The new WiMAX technology which is now being deployed even has spectrum in 3.65 GHz which is considered “lightly licensed” available with no licensing fees. The WiMAX technology has greater capability and is far less expensive to deploy than licensed frequency yet we have still not seen a viable Free Business Model.

So the question remains, is Free Broadband a workable concept or just another gimmick supported by the government.