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As broadband data further blends with cellular voice, mobile devices will become the dominant portals to the connected world. However current design practices still involve building independent networks that each make their own resource decisions. To move beyond 4G, wireless networks will need to cooperate to provide better performing and more robust wireless services. In this paper, we present a ‘cleanslate’approach to wireless networking. The approach requires the following assumptions to hold: 1) Incentives are in place motivating independent, autonomous wireless systems (AWSs) to cooperate with each other to provide users with universal broadband wireless coverage; 2) In any given geographic area, a handset might have access to many independent, autonomous wireless networks; 3) Mobile nodes will support a small number of adaptive radios that are capable of operating in a number of supported communication modes and over a range of spectrum. With these liberating assumptions, we present an architecture for a heterogeneous wireless system that moves beyond 4G systems. We present preliminary results from a MATLAB-based simulation designed to demonstrate the essence of the ideas. We identify the key research challenges that must be addressed to move the idea from a concept to a viable network system.