A handful of small companies are delivering wireless broadband access to residents and businesses in and around Seattle: Most of the companies use Wi-Fi to serve customers as far as five miles from an antenna and they're charging around $30 a month for a 1.5 Mbps service. These small operators are welcomed with open arms especially by residents who aren't served by any other type of broadband access.
I'd love to see one of these startups expand and stay in business for a while. As this article notes, these small broadband wireless providers tend to come and go.
The service providers targeting rural areas may have more success in the future if the FCC decides to loosen up power restrictions. Apparently the FCC is considering allowing operators in rural areas to use higher transmit power levels than operators in cities. In rural areas there's less potential for interference and more need to allow signals to travel far because people tend to be more spread out.