M2Z: The latest Hail Mary on universal broadband access

M2Z Networks is the latest ambitious start-up launched by Milo Medin, founder of @Home.

It is still secretive, but it wants to create broadband access for at least 95 percent of the U.S. population, according to a story today by John Letzing of VentureWire (sorry, we don’t have a direct link).

It plans to do so by winning a license to provide service in 20MHz of spectrum in the 2155-2175 MHz band, which it applied for on May 4. It has backing from top Silicon Valley venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, along with Redpoint Ventures and Charles River. It was apparently incubated last year in the offices of Charles River. It claims it can raise at least another $400 million and can roll out the service within 10 years, according to Letzing.

It is co-founded with former Federal Communications Commission official John Muleta.

Frankly, we find this a little bizarre, because of the competitors out there, and because ten years is a long time to plan in this industry, especially when telecom service is tending toward zero cost (look at Skype and Vonage blood battle over VoIP). The story notes:

Last week, Clearwire Corp., a company founded by wireless industry luminary Craig McCaw, filed to raise roughly $400 million in an IPO to help it buy up chunks of spectrum across the country.