Decades ago, the government allocated a portion of the 2.5-GHz spectrum to schools nationwide for educational television programming, but much of it hasn't been used. In 2004, the FCC issued a proposal: Any portions of the spectrum not in use or leased by 2008 could be auctioned.

Milwaukee Public Schools--where three out of four kids get the free lunch program for low-income students--hopes to build a WiMax network by next summer to give students free Internet access. "We don't want to lose precious bandwidth that can be used to benefit our low-income students," says James Davis, the Milwaukee school district's director of technology.

The district is treading into uncharted territory. A dozen or so municipalities nationwide are setting up free and low-cost wireless broadband networks, but they're using well-established Wi-Fi on the unlicensed 5.4- to 5.8-GHz spectrum. The Milwaukee school district says it's talking to several WiMax vendors with equipment that works with its 2.5-GHz spectrum, but none of it is certified by the WiMax Forum, an industry standards group. Certified equipment is just now becoming available, and it's initially only for 3.5 GHz, a spectrum used in Europe, Asia, and other places where WiMax is gaining momentum, but one that's not yet approved by the FCC for wireless broadband.

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