A project to avail portions of advanced wireless services-2 spectrum to telecommunications companies, in exchange for free nationwide public internet services, has been put on hold until next year, when the new administration takes office.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) canceled the meeting in which members would vote on the initiative soon after two Democratic lawmakers asked that it be temporarily suspended, Mediapost writes.

The Congressmen, Sen. Jay Rockefeller from West Virginia and Rep. Henry Waxman from California, said it would wiser to use the remaining weeks of the current administration to focus on the upcoming transition to digital TV.

Despite the FCC's attempts to tell TV-viewers that they will have to adapt to the new signal with a digital conversion box (or buy a new TV), as of September nearly one in five Americans are partially or completely unprepared, owning at least one TV set that will no longer work in February.

The new administration is likely to focus on the proposal, considering that last week President-elect Barack Obama said expanding broadband connectivity to all Americans would be a top priority while he was in office.

But the proposal was not without critics. FCC Chairmain Kevin Martin, when presenting the idea at the beginning of this month, explained that the free internet would have to be family-friendly, that is, the winning bidders would block all pornography and other offensive content.

Though users over 18 could opt out of the porn filter, digital rights and free speech groups still object, saying the pre-screen is "not part of the Commission's general public interest authority."

And T-Mobile, which paid $4.2 million in 2006 to license an adjacent spectrum, has said that the wireless broadband plan will result in interference with its transmissions. The FCC said that is not the case and cites tests showing no interference.