Re: [gaia] RG Last Call: draft-irtf-gaia-alternative-network-deployments-02

Food for thought.

In some countries community networks survive better under regulatory parameters when they are called community networks.
If you start to parse the name too much, some companies and regulators may decide that the entity falls under a certain regulatory umbrella.
Some companies might see the newly named entity as a threat and ask the regulator to regulate them out of existence.
Some regulators might not want to take the time (and I say this with all do respect) to manage it all.
I would say that given the recent SDG discussions that some very good regulators and ministries and/or ministries of economy might want to focus on the positive aspect of providing solutions in rural areas/remote/underserved areas and might make exceptions and even help make it happen.  The simple fact that allowing competitive and innovative companies into some markets (and the economic impact of doing so) has not made it onto the top of the in-box means you have to make it very easy to do what you want to do (translation – make sure this is a win for the local municipal or village  entities so that they can argue your case).

It follows that a key part of the  “environmental assessment” isn’t just the engineering and/or the “who is in the market”, but the
“temperature” of government/reg/policy environment and what past experience has been for some smaller entities trying to provide innovative solutions.  Usually the latter entities needed some umbrella of protection.

It would be really great to ask others what best practices they have seen as we are trying to scale our Wireless for Communities programme outside of APAC and would really love to have more data.

Best,
Jane

From: gaia <gaia-bounces@irtf.org<mailto:gaia-bounces@irtf.org>> on behalf of Arjuna Sathiaseelan <arjuna.sathiaseelan@cl.cam.ac.uk<mailto:arjuna.sathiaseelan@cl.cam.ac.uk>>
Date: Saturday, December 12, 2015 at 7:45 AM
To: Mat Ford <ford@isoc.org<mailto:ford@isoc.org>>
Cc: gaia <gaia@irtf.org<mailto:gaia@irtf.org>>
Subject: Re: [gaia] RG Last Call: draft-irtf-gaia-alternative-network-deployments-02

Thanks Mat.

I have been recently discussing with Roger from Guifi about whether community networks should be termed as Alternative Networks or should it be called Complimentary Networks considering that community networks could end up sharing infrastructure with network operators who could see this as a great opportunity to access the last mile without a CAPEX.

So is Alternative Networks the right terminology or should we have Complimentary Networks?

Regards

On 1 December 2015 at 16:28, Mat Ford <ford@isoc.org<mailto:ford@isoc.org>> wrote:
Folks,

I think it’s time we tried to conclude our work on draft-irtf-gaia-alternative-network-deployments. Jose detailed the changes in the most recent update when he announced the update to the list, so I won’t repeat those here. I have not seen any further discussion.

If you have any concerns or further comments regarding the content of this document, please raise them on this mailing list by Tuesday December 15th. I hope to initiate IRSG review of the document immediately thereafter.

Thanks,
Mat
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Arjuna Sathiaseelan
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