page_title: Municipal wireless network
section_title: Criticism and externalities
hierarchical_section_title: Municipal wireless network / Criticism and externalities
caption_attribution_description: Català: Instal·lació d'un "supernode" de la xarxa Guifi.net al barri de Sant Pere i Sant Pau a Tarragona. English: Installation of a "supernode" of Guifi.net's network in the neighbourhood of Sant Pere i Sant Pau in Tarragona.
context_page_description: A municipal wireless network is a citywide wireless network. This usually works by providing municipal broadband via Wi-Fi to large parts or all of a municipal area by deploying a wireless mesh network. The typical deployment design uses hundreds of wireless access points deployed outdoors, often on poles. The operator of the network acts as a wireless internet service provider.
context_section_description: Municipal wireless networks face opposition from telecommunications providers, particularly in the United States, South Africa, India and the European Union. In the 2000s telecommunications providers argued that it is neither economical nor legal for  municipal governments to own or operate such businesses. The dominant type of wireless networks are the private wireless local area networks (WLANs), for which individuals or businesses pay a subscription to a local carrier. In 2006 the US Federal Trade Commission expressed concerns about such private-public partnerships as trending towards a franchise monopoly. Within the United States, providing a municipal wireless network was not recognized as a priority. Some have argued that the benefits of public approach may exceed the costs, similar to cable television.
  In the early 2010s concerns were articulated that a considerable percentage of the world population did not have access to affordable Internet access. Despite the growing digitalization of business and government services, 37 percent of the European and 22 percent of the north American population did not have affordable access to the Internet in 2009. Because local governments and municipalities in rural economiess either could not fund wireless networks or did not consider it a priority, numerous communities across the world have built and funded autonomous community wireless networks (CWNs), taking advantage of the free 2.4 GHz spectrum and open source software.
  The former New York state politician and lobbyist Thomas M. Reynolds argues that unintended externalities are possible as a result of local governments providing Internet service to their constituents. A private service provider could choose to offer limited or no service to a region if that region's largest city opted to provide free Internet service, thus eliminating the potential customer base. The private sector receives no money from taxpayers, so there isn't competition. The lack of competition prevents other municipalities in that region from benefiting from the services of the private provider. The smaller public municipalities would at the same time not benefit from the free service provided by the larger city because it is designed to be subsidized by taxpayers and not concerned about the maximization of profits. The broadband provided by the government isn't largely supported to create an income on top of the private sector not being competed with enough to make a profit. Thus, making both municipal wireless networks anticompetitive.
caption: A volunteer installing a "supernode" of guifi.net. In July 2018 guifi.net had over 35,000 active nodes and about 63,000 km of wireless links.[10]
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