Guifi.net is a free, open and neutral, mostly

wireless community network Wireless community networks or wireless community projects or simply community networks, are non-centralized, self-managed and collaborative networks organized in a grassroots fashion by communities, non-governmental organizations and cooperatives ...

, with over 37,000 active nodes and about 71,000 km of wireless links (as of December 2021). The majority of these nodes are located in

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

and the

Valencian Community The Valencian Community is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populous Spanish Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community after Andalusia, Catalonia and the Community of Madrid wit ...

, in

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, but the network is growing in other parts of the world. The network is self-organized and operated by the users using unlicensed wireless links and open optical fiber links. The nodes of the

network Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematics ...

are contributed by individuals, companies and administrations that freely connect to an open

telecommunications Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

network and extend the network wherever the

infrastructure Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and pri ...

and content might not otherwise be accessible. Nodes join the network following the self-provision model since the whole structure is explicitly open to facilitate understanding how it is structured, so that everyone can create new sections as required. That results in a network infrastructure commons that provides abundant connectivity. Guifinet crecimiento 15marzo2011

Guifi.net is supported by the Guifi.net Foundation, which has been registered as an operator with the Spanish Telecommunications Market Commission (CMT) since April 2009. In August 2009, the first deployment of

optical fiber An optical fiber, or optical fibre, is a flexible glass or plastic fiber that can transmit light from one end to the other. Such fibers find wide usage in fiber-optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at ...

was started, known as the Fiber From The Farms (FFTF) Broadband Initiative, covering about 2 km and linking dozens of farms and farmhouses in the town of

Gurb Gurb () is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Osona in Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute ...

. Since early 2011, guifi.net has been connected to the Catalonia Neutral Internet Exchange Point ( CATNIX), which exchanges data with other international telecommunications operators such as

Cogent Communications Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. is a multinational internet service provider based in the United States. Cogent's primary services consist of Internet access and data transport, offered on a fiber optic, IP data-only network, along with coloc ...

and

Hurricane Electric Hurricane Electric is a global Internet service provider offering Internet transit, tools, and network applications, as well as data center colocation and hosting services at one location in San Jose, California and two locations in Fremont, Cal ...

. This Internet connection is used by several associations that offer their members high-speed Internet access at low cost, which other

Internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, no ...

s currently do not offer. The model is oriented to

cost sharing Costs are shared when more than one party pays towards the total costs, or accounted for separately across a number of activities or projects. In health care, cost sharing occurs when patients pay for a portion of health care costs not covered by ...

, the compensation mechanism. The basic principle of operation is based on the

Wireless Commons License The Wireless Commons License describes the principles, terms and conditions for many libre and open wireless community networks. In summary it gives the right to use the network for any purpose unless you affect the operation of the network or th ...

References

External links

What is guifi.net?

Services on guifi.net

guifi.net + EXO
*
guifi.net documentation wiki

Guifi.net presentation
{{in lang, ca Community networks Internet service providers of Spain Mesh networking Telecommunications companies of Spain Wireless network organizations

See also

References

External links