For something I’m writing (for free), I want to make the case for the benefits of having a “wifi blanket,” by which I mean, loosely, making wireless Internet connectivity so common that we can rely on it being available just about anywhere we are in this country. Depending on how it’s implemented, that might work out to coverage as broad as the reach of TV or cell phones, or, say, cheap or free connectivity available to 90% of the population. (I’m making up this number.) And it doesn’t have to be wifi. If it’s WiMAX or open spectrum or something else, I don’t care, so long as it’s cheap or free, truly open, crosses economic strata, and is so common that we take it for granted.

For now ignore the costs and the practicalities. If such a thing were accomplished, how might it affect us? What opportunities would it open? What sort of economic stimulus might it provide, especially if we assume that a wireless blanket would stimulate the growth of wifi phones (or combo phones), which be more general purpose Internet devices. What might the blanket do for education? Politics? News and entertainment? Marketing? National security? Do you have any statistics you’ve found or made up? Pointers to actual research? Wild-ass speculation? Science fiction scenarios? Paranoid plots? Bring ’em on! [Tags: wifi net_neutrality telephony ]

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