That's what the Federal Communications Commission would like to see, as explained in this front-page Washington Post article by Cecilia Kang. As you might imagine, some industries like this idea a tad better than others. Here's a short excerpt:
The federal government wants to create super WiFi networks across the
nation, so powerful and broad in reach that consumers could use them to
make calls or surf the Internet without paying a cellphone bill every
month. The proposal from the Federal Communications Commission has
rattled the $178 billion wireless industry, which has launched a fierce
lobbying effort to persuade policymakers to reconsider the idea,
analysts say. That has been countered by an equally intense campaign
from Google, Microsoft and other tech giants who say a free-for-all WiFi service would spark
an explosion of innovations and devices that would benefit most
Americans, especially the poor.
The article goes on to say that some people think that the government-supplied network envisioned by the FCC won't be maintained adequately and/or won't be powerful enough to handle the expected traffic.
