Gw2018 Countryintro Cutting a Line

Community Networks GLOBALGLOBAL INFORMATION INFORMATION 2018 2018 SOCIETY WATCH 2018 THE 43 COUNTRY REPORTS included in this year’s Global SOCIETYCOMMUNITY WATCH NETWORKS 2018 Information Society Watch (GISWatch) capture the different GLOBAL INFORMATION SOCIETY WATCH experiences and approaches in setting up community networks across the globe. They show that key ideas, CommunityCommunity Networks Networks such as participatory governance systems, community ownership and skills transfer, as well as the “do-it-yourself” spirit that drives community networks in many different contexts, are characteristics that lend them a shared purpose and approach.

The country reports are framed by eight thematic reports that deal with critical issues such as the regulatory framework necessary to support community networks, sustainability, local content, feminist infrastructure and community networks, and the importance of being aware of “community stories” and the power structures embedded in those stories. GLOBAL INFORMATION SOCIETY WATCH GLOBAL INFORMATION SOCIETY WATCH

GLOBAL INFORMATION SOCIETY WATCH 2018 Report www.GISWatch.org

International Development Research Centre Centre de recherches pour le développement international

AssociAtion for Progressive communicAtions (APc) A SSOCI ATION FOR PROGRESSIVE COMMUNIC ATIONS (AP C) And internAtionAl develoPment reseArch centre (idrc)

Tapa_GISW_2018.indd 1 12/10/18 12:44 Global Information Society Watch 2018

International Development Research Centre Centre de recherches pour le développement international Global Information Society Watch 2018 Community Networks

Operational team GISWatch 2018 advisory committee Roxana Bassi (APC) Carlos Baca (REDES) Valeria Betancourt (APC) Luca Belli (FGV) Kathleen Diga (APC) Jane Cofﬁn (ISOC) Alan Finlay (APC) Kazanka Comfort (Fantsuam Foundation) Michael Jensen (APC) Stéphane Couture (York University) Carlos Rey-Moreno (APC) Alison Gillwald (Research ICT Africa) Michuki Mwangi (ISOC) APC project coordination team Leandro Navarro (PANGEA) Namita Aavriti (APC) Dorothy Okello (WOUGNET/Makerere University) Roxana Bassi (APC) Nico Pace (AlterMundi) Valeria Betancourt (APC) Steve Song (Village Telco/Rhizomatica) Kathleen Diga (APC) Ritu Srivastava (DEF) Anriette Esterhuysen (APC) Flavia Fascendini (APC) Project coordinator Alan Finlay (APC) Kathleen Diga / Roxana Bassi (APC) Chat Garcia Ramilo (APC) Michael Jensen (APC) Editor Carlos Rey-Moreno (APC) Alan Finlay Assistant editor and proofreading Lori Nordstrom (APC)

Publication production support Cathy Chen

Graphic design Monocromo [email protected] Phone: +598 2400 1685

Cover illustration Matías Bervejillo

This work was carried out with the aid of a grant from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Ottawa, Canada, as part of the APC project “Community access networks: How to connect the next billion to the Internet”. More information at: https://www.apc.org/en/project/ local-access-networks-can-unconnected-connect-themselves The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of IDRC or its Board of Governors.

International Development Research Centre Centre de recherches pour le développement international

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Published by APC 2018

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Global Information Society Watch 2018 web and e-book ISBN 978-92-95113-06-0 APC-201810-CIPP-R-EN-DIGITAL-296

Disclaimer: The views expressed in the introduction, thematic and country reports of GISWatch are not necessarily the views of APC or of its members. COUNTRY REPORT INTRODUCTION Cutting a line of sight for community connectivity

Alan Finlay The political agency of community networks A number of reports speak to the social and political agency of community networks, as well as actors in those communities. Sulá Batsú (Costa Rica) argues The 43 country reports gathered here were selected that “community networks should not be conceived as based on our working definition of community net- small or weak organisations; they can be constituted works, as “communication networks that are built, as large, sustainable and influential organisations that owned, operated and used by citizens in a participa- are in the hands of the people they provide services tory and open manner”. While this definition was a to.” Similarly, Sarantaporo.gr (Greece) shows how the useful starting point, the country reports also illus- historical social and political agency of communities trate that what we think of as community networks needs to be recognised, and drawn on – in this case, can be a lot more messy, and that a number of local- the rural and cooperative movements in Greece in the level networks that self-identify as community net- early 20th century. The authors write that community works are closer to hybrid or blended models of networks should be seen as constituted by “partic- community access. ipants [as] rational social actors rather than docile The networks differ in their purpose, their gov- consumers” – communities, that is, have the “poten- ernance and sustainability models, their politics, tial to muster collective power that can bring about their stakeholders, their relationship to the state social change.” Several reports refer to an econom- and the economy, their size, and even their techno- ics of “solidarity”, where those who cannot pay for logical set-up, or what they “do” (some networks connectivity are subsidised by those who can. Volun- are intranets, and do not offer access to the world teering is encouraged as a form of active citizenship. wide web). Even the notion of “community” is quite A sophisticated theoretical politics drives a loosely applied. Compare, for example, the story number of initiatives – particularly those in Europe. of what is considered the first community network In Italy, ninux.org “started as a ‘geek experiment’, in Ecuador – in a rural community of some 50 peo- and maintained this approach throughout its evo- ple – to guifi.net (Catalonia), also a “community lution. This gave it a specific ethical and ideological network”, but “with tens of thousands of working purpose, and allowed it to actively contribute to the nodes, and hundreds of volunteers, professionals spirit and development of the European community and public administrations involved.” network movement.” The country reports, as a result, offer a rich A sense of agency is critical to this ideological entry point for comparing local access initiatives purpose – a “do-it-yourself” attitude is referred to across the globe that self-identify as community in many reports, with Sarantaporo.gr referring to its networks to better understand points of compar- governance system of 10 people as a “do-ocracy”. ison, agreement and departure. Although by no Freifunk in Germany is energised by a hacker means comprehensive, the result can be read as ethic, and enacts new forms of citizenship in its a raw survey of community networks in different “free wireless network activism” connecting over contexts. To complement and enliven the points 300 refugee shelters and centres: of comparison, country reports such as those from In parallel to the traditions of established Peru and Venezuela offer arguments contra com- hacker organisations like the “Chaos Comput- munity networks, due to factors such as the cost er Club”, the Freifunk initiative provided the of equipment, prohibitive laws, and the prolifera- socio-material practices to problematise the tion of mobile connectivity. Similarly, for different infrastructural politics of refugee shelters and reasons, community networks are not operating in reception centres, but also sought to actively China and Seychelles, whose country reports can be reconfigure them. read here.

Country reports / 59 This intervention is part of Freifunk’s ongoing work all at once – maybe that will happen, but it’s not to establish it as a “legitimate form of ‘digital vol- the first step. Start with a single link, and that unteering’, which includes a sustained engagement small, practical step will teach you things that with public institutions and a struggle in legally enable you to grow the network later. backing up its own emerging practices.” Open source firmware for routers such as LibreMesh Community networks can also be “political” in a normative sense, whether to counteract internet or OpenWrt is commonly used, with the Wi-Fi sig- shutdowns in the Democratic Republic of the Congo nals typically transmitted on unlicensed 2.4 GHz (DRC), or to circumvent surveillance. While China and 5.8 GHz bands. Backhaul connectivity is nor- “forbids significant organisation outside the pur- mally through licence-exempt or licensed wireless view of the state,” one author could not complete links, or fibre. (Fantsuam Foundation in Nigeria tried a report because of a country context that was de- satellite but found it too costly.) scribed as "extremely sensitive" – it was not safe, Sometimes the backhaul connectivity is donat- in this environment, to publicly disclose information ed through partnerships (e.g. with universities, or about community networks. through service providers who partner with a project looking for an expansion of their customer base “Step-by-step” tech at the local level). Networks are also considering Most community networks discussed here follow the potential of TV white space (TVWS) for connec- the mesh network methodology – literally creating tivity – in an interview, a pilot project underway in a mesh through “organically” connected routers Tanzania is discussed here. or “nodes”. The network can then have as few as Networks in both Mexico and the Philippines ex- one connection to the internet that is shared by the periment with and promote mobile connectivity for community. their community access solution. One usefulness of a mesh network is that it In the absence of an electricity grid, or unsta- can expand in a step-by-step way as more nodes ble power supply, community networks rely on are added as they are needed – and authors advise generators, solar energy or, in some cases, hydro- that communities should not rush the process. Zen- power. Although these solutions give communities zeleni in South Africa calls this a “model of slow more control over their power supply, Alternative co-creation”. As WirelessPT in Portugal puts it, it is Solutions for Rural Communities (ASORCOM) in My- also a system that can “self heal” when combined anmar found that alternative power solutions can with software that detects breaks in the mesh when a also be vulnerable: node goes down, automatically looking for the near- There was no national electrical grid in the est working node to keep the network functional. project area, so the project had to depend on Antennas are sometimes used to relay the sig- hydropower and solar. During the rainy sea- nal over longer distances, including the backhaul sons, hydropower stations were washed away internet connection to/from the nearest town or by flash floods, and solar power was made in- city, or extending it to nearby communities. These effective by heavy cloud cover. The network did are mounted on towers and other prominent points. The number of antennas needed typically depends have a backup generator, but the diesel needed on the geography of the region. to run it led to extra costs for the communities. In one interesting description of hands-on prac- This meant that the use of the network was lim- tical methods (Ecuador), line-of-sight antennas are ited in the rainy seasons. set up at dusk so that the neighbouring city can Not all of the community networks discussed here be clearly identified when the evening lights get have access to the internet – while a number have turned on: developed an internet-intranet ecosystem, in the They advised us: Climb up to high places at dusk case of networks such as Mesh Bukavu (DRC), to identify potential links, and then just try the content such as Wikipedia, ebooks, and computer most obvious link in the fastest, least expensive science and English course material is download- way possible. Fastest in terms of just buying an ed onto the intranet. The community can also chat antenna instead of making antennas yourselves, to others through an instant messaging system. and least expensive in terms of using a friend’s Similarly, one of the important functions of Net- internet connection instead of contracting your work Bogotá in Colombia is crime prevention, and own. In order to take a first step, let go of the the security cameras are an integral part of the idea of building a network for five communities network set-up. These examples of network use

60 / Global Information Society Watch highlight that setting up a community network their support and, as a consequence, the man- is not just about connecting to the outside world agers of the initiative have lost legitimacy, given via the internet, but about a community using that the communities perceive this delay as a technology to attend to its local, sometimes more breach of their commitment to the project. practical needs. Sensitivity to local processes is important, as Ma- Governance from the ground up cha Works (Zambia) argues: Community networks are a matter of perspective – In the process of engaging the community, the suggested by the substitution of the phrase “first organisation exercises sensitivity to local con- mile” for “last mile” to signify the technical chal- textual frameworks and understandings, for lenge of reaching citizens and homes. They work instance, regarding time and space, affecting from the community outwards, rather than from both the practice of human interaction and the the vantage of the state or the service provider in- assessment of realities. wards. “Access” is not just about access. As the This is, the authors argue, “important to ensure the authors writing on ninux.org put it: “If the whole long-term sustainability of the intervention.” community network movement turns into a ‘connec- Particular attention should be given in tivity fac tory’ , its original and innovative push will community networks to the empowerment of mar- be strongly reduced.” ginalised groups or individuals, whether through Reflecting this, most of the reports emphasise the formation of governance structures, training a form of community ownership – these are, in the interventions, or other community empowerment main, all bottom-up, grassroots initiatives, and the programmes. In India, women weavers are taught empowerment of local communities and members of how to upload their designs onto the internet, and the communities is a shared concern. While govern- “barefoot engineers” are trained to set up antennas ment involvement is sought in several networks, and and perform other tasks typically seen as “men’s the private sector is sometimes seen as a partner, roles”. community ownership is a cornerstone of most of the Catalonia offers an example of an advanced projects discussed here. Participatory governance governance model, with clear roles and procedures models are typically promoted, with ownership by (that can be used elsewhere). Two key questions the community being fundamental to the long-term need to be asked: What is the objective of the net- sustainability of the network. While there are nu- work? And, is this a shared objective? This “helps merous variants of the community network model, to focus […] efforts” and “increases certainty” by collective approaches to governance can be consid- reducing the “likelihood of misunderstandings and ered a defining feature of community networks. conflicts.” In the way that “different communities However, participatory models are not always [have] different goals,” and “determining who that easy to manage or sustain. ASORCOM in Myanmar community was and their goals created the profile shows how they can test our assumptions of com- of the network” in the Caribbean, governance mod- munity and collaboration and shared notions of the els can vary, and depend on the objective of the “common good”. Keeping a sense of “community” network, the size, and the stakeholders involved. in community networks can be hard work: Sometimes users would fight amongst them- Getting the right support selves. Some users downloaded videos and Legislation governing community networks is un- games that affected connectivity for everyone. even, and frequent calls are made by authors to Sometimes people wanted to charge their have community networks recognised in law, and neighbours for connecting to their router. We to cut away at the regulatory red tape that inhibits have had to offer counselling to resolve these their operations. This includes licensing exemptions disputes. We have also had to install software for the 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz band and TVWS, and to monitor and control the system. supporting community networks through universal Colnodo (Colombia) describes how confidence in service funds. As the Internet Society Kyrgyzstan new forms of community participation can wear Chapter found, registration requirements can break thin without the proper commitment from its the spirit of a start-up initiative: proponents: The main obstacle that made us lose all our This delay has begun to frustrate the participant hope was the requirement to register the use communities. Some leaders have withdrawn of frequencies. We thought that we could use

Country reports / 61 certain frequencies, as long as nobody else Our first major innovation is our public-private was using them. When we found out that we partnership for sharing cellular spectrum with needed to register them and that it takes half a a large mobile operator. Given the absence of year just to go through the application, we were regulatory support and spectrum access for devastated... community cellular networks in the Philip- pines, we found it necessary to find a partner Part of the advocacy challenge is for governments that shares the project’s vision and that would to recognise the practical and real contribution that allow the community network to operate under community networks make towards achieving their their frequency licence. We found that partner own development targets. Instead, as WirelessPT in Globe Telecom, a major telecommunications found, successful projects sometimes fall prey to company in the Philippines. Since our sites the whims of political opportunism: have a smaller subscriber base than what they Policies in favour of community networks had would consider viable, our community network never existed. The idea of sharing resources in deployments are placed under their corporate a community was always looked down on with social responsibility programme. prejudice or at least seen as something that could not make money and was therefore un- Adaptability and resilience important. Any potential political champions one Community networks appear to be highly adapt- could find would always want public credit and able. They connect municipalities in Catalonia, and visibility for their personal brand in exchange for the urban slums of Kenya. They “work” in the high their support, sometimes demanding control and mountain passes of a sparsely populated natural trying to dictate how the project would work. reserve in Georgia, and in the Amazon rainforests. They are adapted to geography, socio-demograph- However, others find policy makers more ready ics, and scale – they “work” whether the network to support them. In Nepal, for example, the gov- has 35,000 nodes, or only a few. They help rebuild ernment has been responsive to the needs of broken communities after civil war, and connect ref- community networks, following a period of heavy ugees in temporary shelters to their families back restrictions due to the country’s civil war: home. They are used by urban professionals and A second regulatory obstacle was that to be- grassroots weavers, activists, farmers, refugees, the come an ISP in Nepal, it was necessary to pay poor and tourists. a huge licence fee. NWNP [Nepal Wireless Net- As Nigeria’s sectarian violence shows, they can working Project] lobbied the regulatory body, be vulnerable, torn down. But they can be resilient the Nepal Telecommunication Authority (NTA), too. In the United States, the Red Hook Initiative to reduce the licence fee. As a result the NTA (RHI) community network was the only communica- issued a new law that made the licensing pro- tion channel left standing following the devastation cedure simple. It also reduced the fee to just of Hurricane Sandy: 100 Nepalese rupees (around USD 1) a year for When Hurricane Sandy struck New York in those who want to work as rural ISPs. October 2012, flood-prone Red Hook was dev- Stakeholders can include the state and private astated. Cell phone service was down and sector actors. While POPDEV Bénin argues that internet service went out in places. The neigh- government community centres should be strength- bourhood was dark, with chest-deep water in ened through participatory governance and mesh the streets – but with its small mesh network, network infrastructure, in South Africa the Depart- RHI was still able to connect to its staff and ment of Telecommunications and Postal Services communities in parts of the neighbourhood announced its intention to support and work with that had no communications or power at all Zenzeleni during a parliamentary budget speech. for weeks after the storm. RHI organised vol- Similarly, Gram Panchayats (village administra- unteers using the mesh to help distribute tions) and the government's Common Service supplies to elders and others unable to leave Centre (CSC) programme are essential collaborators the public housing towers in the neighbour- in Gram Marg community-led networks in India. hood, and gave the community a voice online Private sector partnerships are typically secured to broadcast what was happening. People all for connectivity. In the Philippines, the VBTS-CoCo- over the world following RHI’s Twitter feed put MoNets project describes its partnership model as together online shopping lists and shipped an “innovation”: supplies to Red Hook.

62 / Global Information Society Watch Much of the resilience of community networks is Similarly, an early music streaming network in Aus- due to the attitude and experimental energy of the tralia, TS Wireless, existed because of the energy actors involved in setting them up. “Be revolution- of enthusiasts who simply wanted to try something ary and dare to take a chance,” writes Miguel Vieira new. “TS Wireless may not have sustained an on- from WirelessPT, who had to figure out his network line community for more than six months, yet there solution from scratch: was community around us, tweaked by a crazy idea My first trip to Moitas Venda [in Portugal] to all along,” writes Andrew Garton. “It was there, start the initial deployment was the hardest. I and still exists, through the network of software had only three weeks to fix and deploy old bro- developers, web coders and designers, passionate ken hardware that was left abandoned by the wardrivers and NetStumbler aficionados.” previous community wireless project, and I had He adds: “We didn’t bridge any digital divide, no skills or knowledge on how to do manage it. we didn’t fill a development void nor provide critical information where it could not otherwise be “One of the key characteristics of ninux is its hacker reached. We experimented with a new idea...” nature,” write Leonardo Maccari and Claudio Pisa: “Our network exists because we want it to ex- Ninux.org […] was the initiative of a comput- ist,” state the authors from the small community er science engineering student, Nino Ciurleo. network in Ecuador. “We build it, we maintain it, Nino had grown technically in the ham radio and we use it – and sometimes we break it, we ar- community as well as the Italian hacker scene gue about it, we insult it when it goes slower than and was influenced by the punk do-it-yourself we like or cuts off entirely, and we get frustrated attitude. about it... but mostly it works and we are thankful.”

Country reports / 63

GLOBAL INFORMATION SOCIETY WATCH 2018 Report www.GISWatch.org

International Development Research Centre Centre de recherches pour le développement international

AssociAtion for Progressive communicAtions (APc) A SSOCI ATION FOR PROGRESSIVE COMMUNIC ATIONS (AP C) And internAtionAl develoPment reseArch centre (idrc)

Tapa_GISW_2018.indd 1 12/10/18 12:44