Community Wireless: Policy and Regulation Perspectives

Abstract

Wireless Internet has been available since the late 1990s, but has only recently emerged as a powerful tool for access in communities and cities at large. However, this has not gone unnoticed by parties that perceive a potential threat to the established order of Internet players. As the clash of interests grows, governments have been getting involved through policy and regulation to help bring balance to the social and economic issues. In this paper, the author attempts to put these issues in to a clearer perspective by summarizing the landscape as it pertains to wireless Internet access from the North American perspective.