This southern European country is undergoing a Wi-Fi revolution.
Until recently, only a few cities have launched modest Wi-Fi
projects. Since regulatory and technical issues have been
clarified, more cities have deployed municipal wireless
networks, and many others are currently in the planning stage.
Specifically, since Barcelona decided in 2008 to deploy two
city-wide Wi-Fi projects, more local public administrations have
begun viewing wireless networks as an important advantage, for
municipal (internal) use and for public Wi-Fi access. A recent
national public funding program and changes in regulations have
encouraged further deployments. At present, over 300 city
councils are offering outdoor Wi-Fi service. This number
increases weekly, and may soon double. Incumbent telecom
operators have opposed the projects. The operators, who have
invested large amounts of money in the latest 3G technologies
and continue to upgrade their networks to LTE, argue that
publicly funded networks will compete unfairly with t