All but lost in the fireworks early this year over Cyren Call Communications Corp.’s public-safety broadband plan, TV white spaces, net neutrality and the spotty state of U.S broadband has been M2Z Networks Inc.’s quietly ambitious campaign to win regulatory approval to offer free high-speed Internet service over a national broadband wireless network.
For good reason. The Federal Communications Commission only recently got around to accepting M2Z’s application, filed in May, and soliciting public comment.
The interesting thing is that M2Z’s grand plan to bring broadband to the masses has enough disruptive ingredients to influence to various degrees other front-burner controversies that are making headlines and keeping lobbyists busy.
M2Z wants to operate the national broadband wireless network in the now-dormant 2155-2175 MHz band. With proceeds from advertising and premium broadband subscriptions, M2Z-headed by former FCC wireless bureau chief John Muleta-would return 5 percent of gross revenues to the U.S. Treasury. The startup, backed by Silicon Valley investors and others, would not tap into the broken universal service fund even as it promises to bring advanced communications to rural and low-income citizens at risk of being left behind in the Information Age.
Unlike the first responder-backed Cyren Call plan, which requires legislation, M2Z would need only the FCC’s consent to secure the 20 megahertz at 2 GHz. M2Z is sensitive to the perception it is seeking a spectrum handout, arguing there are social and public-safety benefits to making broadband universal and affordable. Agreeing with that proposition are President Bush and FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, who wants a wireless broadband alternative to the cable TV-telephone broadband duopoly. Given that, one has to wonder whether M2Z’s wireless broadband vision could have the unintended effect of weakening one of Cyren Call’s selling points: bringing wireless broadband to unprofitable rural areas.
Seeing that the FCC didn’t reject the M2Z plan a week after putting it on public notice as it did with Cyren Call’s proposal, Muleta’s campaign to move transport costs to zero just might have a chance.
