[wsfii-discuss] [Office] Pre-alert situation in Argentina, please help & advice

Mon Nov 26 15:22:03 UTC 2012

On 11/26/2012 10:28 AM, Vic Hayes wrote:
> Hi Ramon and Nicolas,
> 
> Please look at Bob Horvitz website at
> http://www.volny.cz/horvitz/os-info/argentina.html 
> 
> The regulations seem favorable, even to the maximum of 4 W e.i.r.p! Here is
> the English translation of the relevant resolution:
> 
> "Resolution No. 213/2004 was published in the Official Journal of Argentina
> on September 27th, 2004. This resolution Allows the use of 802.11g devices
> in Argentina for private (all the territory) and public (restricted to some
> areas) use. Besides, some technical conditions have been set, Such as
> maximum EIRP limited to 4 W. " (Approval News, December 2004, Center for
> Communications Technology, Spain)

Vic, thanks for the link. I've been re-reading the original text of
Resolution 213/2004 [1] and although it allows for the private use of
these technologies in the 2.4Ghz band:

Art. 5 - Private use of the systems described in Article 1 will also be
allowed in the national territory.

The problem is with article 7:

Art. 7° — Radioelectric systems authorization [...] will be subject to
the presentation of descriptive information on every traffic
concentration station [...]

which in fact gives the CNC the power to declare illegal almost any
wireless router whenever they see fit. This information presentation is
the key problem because the hardware used must be approved by the CNC
itself and their list of approved hardware is always outdated in
relation to what's available on the market. To make it worse, only those
who produce or import the hardware are entitled to "homologation" (get
new hardware approved).

So... in the letter it would seem that the use of the 2.4Ghz band is
quite permissive but in reality it's not and almost every wifi router
installed in Argentina can be considered to be violating these
regulations, thus making it's enforcement completely arbitrary.

I'll keep in touch with Ramón and let you all know of any news on this
matter. Thanks for the support :)

Cheers,
NicoEchániz

[1] http://www.copitec.org.ar/revista/doc_download/509-resolucion-nd-2132004

> So long,
> 
> Vic
> -----Original Message-----
> From: office-bounces at openspectrum.eu [mailto:office-bounces at openspectrum.eu]
> On Behalf Of Vic Hayes
> Sent: maandag 26 november 2012 11:57
> To: 'Ramon Roca'; wsfii-discuss at lists.okfn.org; office at openspectrum.eu;
> 'juridic guifi'; redsos3 at list.fcforum.net
> Cc: 'Nicolas Echaniz'
> Subject: Re: [Office] Pre-alert situation in Argentina, please help & advice
> 
> Hello Ramon,
> 
> I have contacted a Profesor at the Univesidad de SanAndrés who may be
> familiar with the Argentinian regulations. 
> 
> The only problem seems to be that the point-to-point service of the
> telephone people have been officially allocated in the 2.4 GHz band.
> 
> Depending on the response I will take the next step.
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> Vic
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: office-bounces at openspectrum.eu [mailto:office-bounces at openspectrum.eu]
> On Behalf Of Ramon Roca
> Sent: zondag 25 november 2012 17:43
> To: wsfii-discuss at lists.okfn.org; office at openspectrum.eu; juridic guifi;
> redsos3 at list.fcforum.net
> Cc: Nicolas Echaniz
> Subject: [Office] Pre-alert situation in Argentina, please help & advice
> 
> 
> Sorry for cross-posting, and in English for a wider audience.
> 
> Last friday, colleagues from a community wireless which is cooperating with
> us in a small village in Argentina got a visit from representatives of the
> CNC (Comisión Nacional de las Comunicaciones). Seems that the inspection was
> caused by a claim from Telecom, a local mobile operator affiliated to
> Movistar (Telefonica), arguing that was interfering to their backbone links.
> 
> The inspected nodes are actually composed by low cost wifi routers, working
> al 2.4 band, using the Argentinian regulatory domain, which is region 2 of
> the UIT (same as in the US), with a power between 50mW and 100mW and serving
> Internet to a primary school, and some families in a low-income
> neighborhood.
> 
> Our colleagues are very much concerned because of the lack of regulations in
> Argentina. Looks like those CNC officials will come back next Thursday
> asking for shutting down the nodes, or even confiscation of the equipment.
> Although wifi equipment has been widely extended in Argentina, the concern
> is that looks like there are some old regulations which require
> discretionary legalization for any radio equipment, and CNC can invoke those
> regulations for this purpose.
> 
> That's why IMHO we are facing a pre-alert situation in Argentina that
> requires to stay tuned on how evolves.
> 
> My first impression is that this kind of equipment and and this band is very
> unlikely the cause for any disturbance for mobile operators, therefore my
> first advice to them has been to cooperate with the authorities for any
> technical assessments on site related to the spectrum analysis, with the
> hope that the story will finish here.
> 
> But in the meantime and just in case:
> 
>  1. Please stay tuned in what happens next Thursday. In case of the
>     network being forced for shutdown or being confiscated, we plan to
>     release a press note reporting those facts, which we believe that
>     might be a serious injury of fundamental rights from citizens from
>     governments and large-corporations, so we will ask for you
>     cooperation disseminating though blogs and social networks worldwide.
>  2. Does anybody know from a local legal contact from Argentina who may
>     assist this wireless community? If someone has a contact, please let
>     me know.
>  3. Any other advice/idea?
> 
> Thanks,
> Ramon.