On September 25th, at the Zumaia Town Hall (Guipúzcoa), the Guifi·net Foundation signed a collaboration agreement with the City Council to start the project of deploying an open, free, neutral, and shared fiber optic telecommunications network in the municipality. The signing of the agreement was attended by Iñaki Ostolaza, Mayor of Zumaia, Ramon Roca, President of the Guifi·net Foundation, and Miguel Ángel Irigoyen, member of the Guifi·net.
The project, under the name Zuntz Optikoa Zumaia (ZOZ), is an initiative of the Zumaia City Council, in collaboration with the Foundation, and aims to bring Internet access to homes, businesses, or administrations regardless of their location. The ZOZ project will be carried out over the next eight months and aims to provide connectivity to the entire municipality, which has more than 10,000 inhabitants.
From left to right: Miguel Ángel Irigoyen, Ramon Roca, and Iñaki Ostolaza.The Guifi· community networknet promotes a local economy and a multi-operator network where various operators offer connection services. This way, the user can choose which operator will provide the services based on their needs. In Zuntz Optikoa Zumaia, three local operators are already interested in offering these services to the residents of Zumaia
The investment needed to carry out the project comes from different sources: the Foundation, the City Council, private loans, citizens' donations, and the monthly line fee. This co-financing system allows residents to make a donation to the Foundation to self-finance their part and, consequently, have a lower monthly fee. In addition, making a donation to a non-profit Foundation provides tax benefits.
For more information and future project updates, you can visit:
- The Guifi· Foundation website: https://fundacio.guifi.net/es_ES/zuntz-optikoa-zumaia.
- The Zumaia City Council website: https://zumaia.eus/es/noticias/zumaia-tendra-una-red-procomun-de-fibra-optica.
Gurb, October 1st, 2020
La fibra òptica comunitària de Guifi·net arriba a Zumaia (País Basc)