M2Z Networks may sue the U.S. Federal Communications Commission after the agency turned down its request for radio frequencies for a national broadband wireless network.

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...M2Z wants to deliver a free service, supported partly by locally targeted search advertising, at 384Kbps downstream and 128Kbps upstream. People would only have to give a valid e-mail address or phone number to use it. Like broadcast TV, the free service would be "family friendly," meaning it would filter out content that wasn't appropriate for children. A paid service on the same network would offer 3Mbps throughput and access to anything on the Internet.

[M2Z's CEO John Muleta] knows who he's up against. He was chief of the FCC's wireless bureau from 2003 to 2005. M2Z, founded in 2005 and based in Menlo Park, Calif., is backed by Silicon Valley venture capital firms.

One wireless analyst said the free service wouldn't be fast enough for most consumers. He also questioned its "family friendly" content restrictions.

"At that point, you're not really giving Internet service," said Sascha Meinrath, research director for the Wireless Future program at the public policy group New America Foundation.

But even if its service never gets turned on, M2Z has done its part to foster broadband competition, Meinrath said.

"M2Z has pretty single-handedly shifted the debate," Meinrath said. Its plan to pay for spectrum through royalties rather than up front, as well as to make more efficient use of spectrum and offer a free service, are likely to show up in future spectrum allocation plans, he said. More efficient wireless networks should mean more bandwidth at lower cost -- a better deal for consumers, Meinrath said...

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