Papers

Aunque desde el año 2007 es posible documentar violaciones del derecho al libre acceso a Internet en Venezuela, a partir del año 2011 se comenzó a reportar de forma sistemática la existencia de políticas gubernamentales dirigidas al control de la infraestructura de telecomunicaciones y del flujo de información digital, así como las acciones de violencia física y técnica en contra de periodistas y ciudadanos que se valen de medios digitales y redes sociales para comunicarse (Freedom of The Net Reports, 2011-2017). Estos hechos, es preciso subrayar, no han ocurrido en el vacío ni al azar.

En este estudio se presenta una revisión general de la literatura existente en el campo de las Redes Inalámbricas Comunitarias a nivel nacional e internacional, haciendo un paralelo con la experiencia desarrollada por Network Bogotá en el despliegue de este tipo de red en el barrio Villa del Río, que se localiza en Bogotá, Colombia. El objetivo del artículo es presentar la recopilación bibliográfica desde una investigación documental, para ello se han utilizado bases de datos especializadas en la temática y una serie de descriptores para su búsqueda.

This article investigates how infrastructure competition among broadband network infrastructure operators in Canada and the U.S. has influenced their incentives to increase fixed broadband connection speeds and invest in next generation fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) technologies. The evolution of measured broadband speeds since the late 2000s documents growing differences in the incentives of dominant broadband operators to respond to demand for higher speed connectivity by increasing connectivity speeds they deliver to their customers.

This article uses a case study of urban Canada to explore the contentious issue of spectrum scarcity. Drawing upon infrastructure studies, this article argues for more critical approaches to this essential element of contemporary communi- cations. The first part of the article explores positions of various actors in the antagonistic debate regarding spectrum scarcity in the lead up to the Canadian 700  MHz spectrum auction, held in 2014. The second part of the article provides unique empirical data for spectrum traffic on licensed frequencies in a busy urban location.

In this paper we study network architecture for unlicensed cellular networking for outdoor coverage in TV white spaces. The main technology proposed for TV white spaces is 802.11af, a Wi-Fi variant adapted for TV frequencies. However, 802.11af is originally designed for improved indoor propagation. We show that long links, typical for outdoor use, exacerbate known Wi-Fi issues, such as hidden and exposed terminal, and significantly reduce its efficiency. Instead, we propose CellFi, an alternative architecture based on LTE.