While the FCC doesn’t have a plan to offer free...

certainly a strong case to be made that 21st-century public infrastructure should include a minimum level of broadband connectivity almost everywhere,” Calabrese wrote in Slate (http://xrl.us/bofosi). “By leveraging existing public assets -- both unlicensed spectrum and the spider web of federal, state, and local fiber optic backhaul that crisscrosses the nation -- it would be relatively inexpensive to blanket most areas with a basic level of wireless connectivity.” Calabrese said Wi-Fi and unlicensed spectrum are more accepted than ever, even by the major wireless carriers. “Five years ago, the most powerful opponents of unlicensed spectrum were AT&T and Verizon,” he wrote. “Today, AT&T operates more than 30,000 Wi-Fi hotspots -- and dozens of ‘hot zones’ in places like Times Square and Wrigley Field -- to relieve congestion that iPhones, iPads, and other mobile devices create on its pricey and limited licensed spectrum. Verizon, meanwhile, has formed a partnership with a consortium of the largest cable companies, which have rapidly built out more than 50,000 Wi-Fi hotspots to promote ‘TV Everywhere’ for their wireline subscribers. As a result, the cable companies have recently become advocates for more unlicensed spectrum.” Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld said in a blog post Friday that free Wi-Fi could become a reality. “I will boldly state that, if the FCC produces a solid 20 MHz of contiguous empty space for TV White spaces in the Incentive Auction proceeding, or even two 10 MHz guard channels that could nationally produce two decent sized LTE -- for unlicensed channels, then we will have exactly the kind of free publicly available wifi” described by the Post, Feld said (http://xrl.us/bofos3). The Post eventually offer clarification of claims made in the article, noting the FCC did not plan to get in the Wi-Fi business (http://xrl.us/bofotu).