The city council of Málaga, Spain wants to provide Wi-Fi everywhere in the city. They are working on a map of Wi-Fi hotspots in the city, which will include information about whether they are free of charge or paid. Although several companies such as JiWire and WeFi provide maps with Wi-Fi locations, they are not comprehensive. Neither are they easy to update. This is the challenge that Málaga is facing after they’ve created the map.
In addition, the city will find it difficult to get around EU regulations which prohibit governmental entities from competing with private enterprise. Prague wanted to offer Wi-Fi access, but in the end created a network that they use only for municipal purposes.
hey there,
thanks for the article. i am having a stopover in malaga soon and want to go to a nice coffee/bar with wlan. is there wifi now everywhere for free? or is there any bar/coffe you can recommend?
thx
johannes
Good article, especially for the background hinting at EU regulations – maybe a good excuse also. If there is a serious City-interest to carry through the idea, they have also regulatory tools against oligopel over-pricing or licensing of cheaper competition. A Counil should of course not compete by itself, it should not even be mapping! It should do its job as a regulator and provide incentives/rules for companies to give relevant service. They have the power and should get the political knowhow.