Shortly after the FCC announced in August its plan for free wireless internet, it was expected that it would receive negative feedback from existing providers.  However, few may have anticipated that roadblocks would come from the very administration that appointed the FCC’s leaders.  Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez sent a letter to the commission on December 10th expressing his disapproval of the project.  The full impact of the message was still uncertain at the time.  The FCC was scheduled to vote on a number of propositions, including this one, on December 18th.  However, in a further development the FCC cancelled the 18th’s Open Commission Meeting on Friday.

This could well be the last nail in this project’s coffin, as the Dec 18 meeting was one of the last meetings that appointee Kevin Martin was to chair.  With a new administration to take power in just 35 days, the fate of the free broadband project is uncertain, to say the least.  That being said, given Obama’s affinity for technology issues, it is entirely possible that the newly-appointed FCC officers will attempt to complete the project.  But for now, it is too late for free broadband to be voted on by this commission, and too early to guess what the next administration will do.  In short, don’t get your hopes up.

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