This article demonstrates that a technology known as white space internet may soon arrive in the real world:

Extending WiFi to one mile, thanks to empty TV channels

Guerra is part of a Rice team led by professors Edward Knightly, Robert Stein, Lin Zhong, and William Reed that last year won a $1.8 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The team’s goal is basic research on providing broadband in the TV “white spaces”—empty channels that the government recently cleared for use by unlicensed Internet providers. Such tests have been done on a small scale—Microsoft ran a white spaces network on its corporate campus, for instance—but the Rice team wanted a real-world urban environment. They also wanted to start by using existing WiFi protocols.

First ‘Super Wi-Fi’ user:

The key word here is unlicensed Internet providers. If this technology reaches its full potential, anyone would be able to set up a white space hotspot like anyone can set up a wifi hot spot today. If that can happen and the range is respectable, it would provide real competition to both cable companies and cell phone providers. This could have a huge effect on the price and availability of both services.

See also an existing technology: Motorola Canopy Wireless Networking – Point-to-Multipoint Broadband