Graham Fri 27 Oct 2023 10:19AM
@dilgreen see also http://guifi.net
dilgreen Fri 27 Oct 2023 10:35AM
Thanks!
Graham (via Loomio) wrote:
dilgreen Fri 27 Oct 2023 11:24AM
Who are the UK people interested in building something like this in the UK?
Graham (via Loomio) wrote:
Nick Sellen Fri 27 Oct 2023 3:23PM
@dilgreen would be worth learning whatever possible from https://www.bristolwireless.net/ who ran a network in bristol, starting when there were significant neighbourhoods not covered by broadband. over time though that stopped being true, and my understanding is that then made the project less useful/relevant/focused...
guifi says a focus is still:
affordable connectivity at a fair price, without discrimination, whether in urban or in rural areas
I wonder if those conditions of scarcity of internet access still exist in Spain/Catalonia? or did it somehow survive through that transition?
Guy James Tue 31 Oct 2023 11:22AM
@Nick Sellen I live in Spain so am able to comment: there are still significant rural areas without decent internet; often satellite is the only option. We tried to get guifi coverage but being in the mountains makes it difficult because there is no line of sight for WiMax antennas. There are still large areas which are covered by guifinet afaik, although bigger companies are gradually covering rural areas, at least with 4G mobile services, which for many people is sufficient.
Danyl Strype Mon 6 Nov 2023 5:16AM
@Nick Sellen Similarly, it might be useful to get some reflections from anyone who was involved in the Free Network Foundation, which was featured in the short doco Free the Network. The FNF got started during Occupy Wall St, and attracted an active group for a couple of years before it fell over.
Hugh Barnard Sat 28 Oct 2023 8:07AM
https://mazizone.net/mazi-eu/ I found this via someone I met in the Coop hackathon last week. It has a pretty substantial 'feel' but I haven't investigated really, really deeply.
Matthew Slater Sat 28 Oct 2023 5:08PM
I know the creator of this and have used it in my home.
Its a good project.
Billy Smith Mon 30 Oct 2023 4:29PM
@Matthew Slater
I met the people from the London-based project back in 2019: https://mazizone.net/mazi-eu/pilot-studies/creeknet/
They have improved their technology since then, so meshnet-nodes are now cheaper, and the local server nodes can act as web-servers, as well as doing the mesh co-ordination.
And one version runs on a low-power-req's Arduino board, powered by 4 rechargeable-AA batteries, so the micro solar/wind is perfectly feasible.
dilgreen · Fri 27 Oct 2023 9:37AM
I think it might be interesting for ppl here to read about mesh networking and building a mesh ISP in Kenya.
if we can get a group together in stroud through stroudcommons.org, we might even try this in the UK.
https://www.inethi.org.za/2022/06/10/kenya-network-installation-17-27-march-2022-senka-hadzic-and-david-johnson/