Amen to lower frequencies! With all the cinder block and concrete in South Florida, 5ghz is useless beyond the room you are in and 2.4ghz struggles. My 1.8ghz DECT phone has better reach than the 2.4ghz did, but the old 49mhz analog phone worked just fine. I would likely need 3x 802.11ac APs to cover my home.

I like the idea to allow higher broadcast power in rural areas, though I imagine this would be difficult to enforce. Definitely agree better antennas would be required as the mobile device would still have limited transmit power.