Independent of the regulatory challenges, even small scale community
WiFi networks very hard to pull off. Shaddi (of TIER fame) wrote about
this a few years back. He concludes, I'm not saying mesh networks
don't work ever...What I am saying is that unplanned wireless mesh
networks never work at
I don't think anyone's talking about mesh networks, are we?
As far as wifi vs cell networks, that's a huge discussion. The biggest
issues are ones of range and quality of service; cell networks are designed
to go kilometers and provide basic guarantees for voice bandwidth. Wifi
networks are not.
Unlicensed spectrum is super important for innovation! Really the FCC is
merely saying that a small portion of the spectrum (now owned by TV
stations) should be allocated to the public domain - unlicensed (i.e. not
sold at auction to be exclusively owned and controlled by a corporate
entity).
