Guifi.net - largest wireless network community in the world

[Vincent Andrès]

Guifi.net - largest wireless network community in the world

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guifi.net

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guifi.net
Website

guifi.net/en
Map of coverage: guifi.net/en/guifi zones Forums: guifi.net/en/forum/228
Primary ASN: 49835
Peering Policy Open
Growth curve of nodes in the guifi.net network by year. March, 15th, 2011

guifi.net is a free, open and neutral, mostly wireless telecommunications community network, with over 28.160 nodes, of which more than 18.000 are operational, about 32.982 km of wireless links. The majority of these nodes are located in Catalonia and the Valencian Community, in (Spain), but the network is growing in other parts of the world. It is the largest wireless network community in the world.[1] The network is self-organized and operated by the users using unlicensed wireless links and open optical links.

The nodes of the network are contributed by individuals, companies and administrations that freely connect to a true open network of telecommunications and extend the network wherever the infrastructure and content might not otherwise be accessible. Nodes join the network following the self-provision model since the whole structure is explicitly open to facilitate understanding how it is structured, the links, so everyone can create new sections as required.

guifi.net is supported by the guifi.net Foundation, which has been registered as an operator[2] with the Spanish Telecommunications Market Commission (CMT) since in April 2009. In August 2009, started the first deployment of optical fiber, the "FFTF" (Fiber From The Farms)[3] Broadband Initiative, about 2 km, linking a dozen of farms and farmhouses in the town of Gurb.

Since early 2011, guifi.net[4] is connected to the Catalonia Neutral Internet Exchange Point (CATNIX),[5] which exchanges data with other international telecommunications operators such as Cogent Communications and Hurricane Electric. This Internet connection is used by several associations that offer their members Internet access to low-cost at high speeds,[6] which currently do not offer other Internet service providers.

The basic principle of operation are based on the Wireless Commons License.[7][8]