Guifi.Net: A citizen’s initiative to bring connectivity to rural Spain
When deciding on the appropriate first-mile (also called last-mile) infrastructure for a broadband network, the following questions should be answered:
- What is the existing infrastructure available? Can it be upgraded to reach the Gigabit Society 2025 and Digital Compass 2030 objectives?
- Is the connection to the end-user upgradeable?
- Is the owner of the existing infrastructure interested in collaboration?
- What are the needs of the territory in terms of type and quality of service?
- Does the infrastructure provide affordable services for the local population and businesses?
- How is the sustainability of the infrastructure to be assessed?
- Is there sufficient funding for future-proof infrastructure?
- Are there users in remote or sparsely populated areas?
- What are the plans for the longer-term upgrade of interim-solutions?
For further details and examples please refer to the Broadband Investment Handbook.
Latest News
Related Content
Big Picture
The Broadband planning section helps municipalities and other entities in their planning of successful broadband development projects.
See Also
Investment efforts to finance public-private and private-run networks are made in cooperation between private actors who own existing infrastructure, and public authorities.
Municipalities, municipal companies, joint ventures, and private companies can be involved in one, two or all three stages of broadband development.
The basic roles of Physical Infrastructure Provider (PIP), Network Provider (NP) and Service Provider (SP) can be taken by different actors.
Access to the broadband infrastructure is possible via different network nodes on the infrastructure and application level.
Key to successful regional broadband development is a politically-supported plan at local, regional or national level, that combines goals with specific needs and stakeholders.
The action plan details the costs, stakeholders, activities, coordination and monitoring involved in implementing the broadband strategy.
An overview of different wired, wireless and upcoming broadband technologies and a description of their advantages, disadvantages and sustainability.
Choosing the right business model depends on the roles of the market actors in the broadband value chain.
Investment models present interesting involvement opportunities for a public authority that engages in regional broadband development.
The main financing tools for high-speed broadband development projects are own resources, revenue-based financing, loans, equity and grants.
State aid for broadband may be necessary in some places where the market does not provide the necessary infrastructure investment.
A broadband network consists of geographical parts. The topology of a network describes how the different parts of a network are connected. The most relevant topologies for the backbone and area networks are tree topologies, ring topologies and meshed topologies. For the first...
In order to understand the roles that public administrations can take, it is useful to view the different layers that make up a broadband network as well as main business roles.
A comparison of broadband technologies presents features of each solution and helps decisions on the best solution for different regions.