IGF 2019 Community Networks: Policy and Regulations

Over the past 4 years, the Dynamic Coalition on Community Connectivity (DC3) has successfully demonstrated that Community Networks (CNs) are feasible options to expand connectivity and that the communities behind CNs are reliable partners. The sound research and engagement activity promoted by DC3 has aroused the attention of an incredibly wide range of actors, including the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) that co-sponsored the 2018 outcome, elaborated by DC3: the Community Network Manual: How to Build the Internet Yourself.

Besides the research demonstrating the feasibility and interest of CNs and instructions on how to build them, it is time to provide also instructions for policymakers on how to facilitate CNs.

To this extent, some DC3 members are elaborating DRAFT Best Practices on Community Networks Policy, based on the works developed by DC3 and its members over the past years, including the Declaration on Community Connectivity; the netCommons the Open letter to EU policy makers, the Declaration of the First Latin American Summit of Community Network, etc.

To discuss pros and cons of existing regulations and collect inputs from a wide range of stakeholders, a RightsCon session has been successfully organised and will be held in June during RightsCon Tunis. This debate will allow participants to discuss laws and regulations and propose draft best practices that will be discussed on the DC3 mailing-list and presented at the IFD session to stimulate feedback of the IGF community.

The DRAFT Best Practices and the IGF session will analyse the following items: i) Definitions of CN and CN users; ii) License requirements and exemptions for CNs: iii) Spectrum policy; iv) Open-access to telecom infrastructures; v) Use of free software ; vi) Tax Exemptions for CNs; vii) Capacity building programmes
The IGF session will have the following agenda:

• Introduction and presentation of DC3 and its work
• Presentations of case studies
• Discussion of the proposed Best Practices
• Discussion of next steps and priorities for DC3