Everyone hates President Bush for their own reason, but now us techies have a reason of our own: he refuses to endorse the FCC’s plan for free national Wi-Fi. Instead, Bush says that a government-mandated Wi-Fi scheme is a bad idea, and it’s one that goes against our “free market” thingamabob.
Unfortunately, as Fast Company points out, there’s a reason why the “free market” has left so much of America’s citizenry without access to broadband: they can’t make any money off it. So, instead of relying upon the “market,” the government says, “Hey, company who won all that white space, you need to set aside a certain percentage of that for public Wi-Fi. Remember, the spectrum you just won is publicly owned; you do as we say or we’ll give it to someone else.” And so on.
Kevin Martin, the head of the FCC, will be part of a hearing on December 18 that decides whether or not the proposal for free Wi-Fi goes through.
Fingers crossed!