[wsfii-discuss] Do your country's Telco Regs help or hindercommunity networks?

[Ramon Roca]

Don't think all us us at guifi.net have broadband access. I understand
that Internet Access should be taken from somewhere.
At guifi we're also using the neutral network to provide bradband in
rurals areas where it isn't by enabling the people in those areas to
access to places where internet acces are available. That's still my
personal case although I'm in Europe... and that's and how why we built
more than 2K kms of links...

To avoid becoming an ISP given and the related difficulties, what about if
the users share internet access instead of paying a fee to a "reseller"
ISP, that is, they pay directly that fee to the provider? Or you are able
to provide Internet Access by yourself at better costs that if they buy
the access directly?

The big point is to avoid the figure of becoming an network operator by
squeezing an owned network and renting it, by simply help people to build
and maintain their own neutral networks.

You just have to split the user expenses in two: One will go directly to
the real ISP, and the other, to the maintainers for labour and materials.

This is how we are running here.

Just trying explain that there is alternative ideas/formulas :), of course
everybody is free to choose.



> Hi Ramon,
> I think that by neutral network you mean something like just
> interconnecting
> individuals and building a "backbone", that is suitable when you have
> individuals having internet connection and wanting to build a "citizen
> network", but here we have very few people having Internet at homes
> because
> the cost to install internet is very expensive : 500USd for installation
> equipment and 120USd monthly fees.
> So our plan is to reduce that amount and make people able to install for
> the
> cost of hardware and pay between 20 and 40 USD for a month just to pay
> Internet bandwidth, maintenance, salaries ....
>
> On 3/19/07, Ramon Roca <ramon.roca at guifi.net> wrote:
>>
>> As a suggestion: Given the fact that you are not thinking in make big $
>> by network access fees, have you considered to simply build neutral
>> network, no fees, and just get paid for materials and labour to
>> workaround this?
>>
>>
>>
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