Michael Mandel's "A Broadband Stimulus Plan" draws analogy to the telecom industry and the auto industry:

In 1965, as the interstate highway building boom was winding down, government at all levels spent roughly $12 billion on highway and street construction and maintenance, paid for in large part by gas taxes and other motor vehicle fees. The total wholesale value of new cars, trucks, and buses the same year was only about $22 billion.

In all likelihood, if the automakers had been forced to bear the full cost of building the roads and highways, they would have had to charge considerably more for their vehicles. Alternatively, fewer roads and highways might have been constructed, especially in rural areas. In either case, the process of creating jobs would have proceeded much more slowly.

So collective spending is sometimes good for all of us. This is one of the cases. Sure it will create jobs in the telecom industry but spending on wireless infrastructure will have benefits far beyond those hired to run optical cable or install switches. A public wireless project can't get started too soon in my opinion.