[wsfii-discuss] Press Release: guifi.net has reached the thousands!

[Julian Priest]

On Mon, Oct 23, 2006 at 11:23:36PM +0200, Ramon Roca wrote:
> At wifi we decided to make a press release at the point we reach > 1.000 
> thousands active nodes. That happened last Thursday.

Congratulations Guifi!

> A LOT MORE THAN JUST A LIST OF ?HOTSPOTS?
> guifi.net isn't just a list of access points. Is much more: Is a big 
> neutral network where the nodes use to have stable wireless links 
> between them and therefore creating an autonomous stable mesh network, 
> either on urban areas or rural areas where in some cases there was no 
> High-Speed internet access before.

This neutral network aspect looks like a good one to publicise right
now with the efforts in the US to fight for the net neutrality bill's
passage into law and the http://savetheinternet.com campaign.

> AN OPEN AND NEUTRAL FREE NETWORK
> In the current times where the original universal spirit of the internet 
> is being mediated by private telecommunications operators, by having 
> neutral networks in the last mile guifi.net is contributing to 
> counterbalance the strict commercial driven interests. To provide 
> warranty on this commitment guifi.net adopts the Wireless Commons License.

The early wireless freenetworks always discussed that the creation of
a neutral wireless access network was partly as a counter to potential
control of the internet by the owners of the core network. The net
neutrality fight in the US is showing that sadly this _was_ a real
threat after all.

The legaslitive fight in the US to enshrine net neutrality in law is a
fantastic initiative, but the growth of municipal wireless and
networks like guifi maybe shows that there is an effective
practical/market approach as well.

It seems to me that building net.neutral access networks where
services (like internet access) are made available by third parties -
provides two mechanisms for users to put pressure on backhaul
providers to be net.neutral.

The first is that the net.neutral network organises groups of users
(aggregation).

These groups can then have political and group purchasing power which
creates a viable negotiating position with backhaul network owners (or
perhaps even a basis for building backhaul networks).

This is going to be the best way to operate where there is only one
backhaul provider (or none).

The second is that a net.neutral access network effectivley creates a
competitive market for backhaul (and other) services across it. Users
can the choose the services that have the properties they want,
neutrality, high speed, low cost etc.

This will work better where there is the possibility for multiple
backhaul service providers.

It seems pretty weird to me that municipal wireless had such a bad
time with anti-competition law. I would have thought that providing
net.neutral access networks provides precisely the possibility for a
deep competitive market for services that competition law tries to
establish with flawed measures based on duplicating infrastructure or
artificial unbundling.

.. appologies if this feels like an old thread ;)

cheers

/julian