Dave Hughes, Founder and Co-Owner, Old Colorado City Communications

Dave Hughes has a few bones to pick with all you big-city folks who make the rules. Federal regulations place power limits on unlicensed wireless spectrum transmissions to prevent urban interference. But in rural America — places like Hughes' home of Colorado Springs, Colo. — interference isn't a problem. Covering large distances is, but it can't be done without boosting power. And with a power limit cap set at 1 watt, Wi-Fi won't help the wide-open spaces, Hughes said.

“Everyone runs around saying, ‘Oh, 802.11a — isn't this wonderful?’ Bullshit.”

A 74-year-old ISP owner, Hughes was fighting for rural broadband while you were still bouncing on your daddy's knee. With various unlicensed spectrum blocks, he's brought broadband to schools in Colorado's San Luis Valley, pubs in Wales, even a base station on Mount Everest. All the while, he's been “hammering [the FCC] to change those damn rules.”

He may finally get his way. The FCC is considering raising the power limit for unlicensed radios in rural areas and freeing up television frequencies that go unused there. With greater power and penetration, spectrum cowboys like Hughes will be able to bring broadband to every cactus and valley in the West. But he doesn't want to stop there. Even Everest isn't the limit.

“The Everest thing is just cute, but it makes a point,” he said. The point, which its climbers well understand, was to show it could be done. Since the international press picked up the story, Hughes has had inquiries from people in Uganda, Australia, the Far East and remote areas across the globe. He told Jim Forster, the Cisco Systems engineer who provided the radios for Everest, “Brace yourself — You're going to be selling hundreds of millions of goddamn Cisco radios in Africa.”

Using VoIP, one or two enterprising wireless companies could get in on the ground floor of one of the most profound achievements in human history, Hughes said: “Low-cost, global, ubiquitous communication.”

It's about damn time.