Should WiFi cover every inch of ground or should it be concentrated where people congregate.

Today we have two designs in the news, one meeting each need.

From Steve Stroh comes the idea of smartBridges, a directional antenna providing enormous bandwidth, and backhaul, within a small defined area.

"There are many, many service providers that have very profitably deployed such a hybrid infrastructure - use Wi-Fi where it makes sense - where it can be highly localized and you can take advantage of higher power, more sensitive receiver, and directional antennas on an outdoor Access Point."

But there's another way, too.

That is, build a mesh that will provide coverage around the entire campus, or an entire city, as Mesh Dynamics proposes. (Linux Devices has covered this, and interviewed Mesh Dyananics' CEO.)

Both ideas have merit. A city-wide network is ideal for providing Voice Over IP. A concentrated network provides true broadband where people are.

The great thing is we can have both. The whole idea of unlicensed bands is that many devices, and many networks, can share the bandwidth. You can have a city-wide mesh for low-bandwidth or Always On applications, and a directional set-up for areas where people congregate and where their laps insist on broadband.

Making all this happen depends on protecting the current unlicensed spectrum, and working to increase it.