So the good guys might have ways to get the message out when the bad guys erect fire walls, or disable incumbent networks.  What’s not to like about such empowering technologies?

But the prospect of broadband in warring regions throughout the world got me thinking about broadband access in my home town, centrally located in the middle of nowhere—State College, PA, home of Penn State University.  Ironically those freedom loving patriots probably have better wireless access than I have.  Worse yet a certain incumbent carrier—threatened by the prospect of taxpayer underwritten, or tax favored municipal wireless networks—managed to convince the easily lobbied Pennsylvania legislature to grant it a right of first refusal on any wireless network with the exception of Philadelphia.  So whatever momentum might evolve to support citizen empowering wireless broadband has the cloud of litigation whether the right exists to even try to build a wireless network.

In Afghanistan and elsewhere shadow wireless networks pop up with U.S. governmental support.  But here in Pennsylvania a cloud of another sort frustrates wireless development thanks to an incumbent carrier claiming but not necessarily exercising “dibs” on wireless networking.