guifi.net is a bottom-up, citizen-driven technological, social and economic project with the objective of creating a free, open and neutral telecommunications network. The guifi.net project puts in practice a disruptive economic model based on the commons model and the collaborative economy, in which volunteers, SMEs and public administrations cooperate to build and operate sustainable common-pool network infrastructure. As of December 2016, guifi.net accounted for more than 32,500 operating nodes, serving over 60,000 people, and more than 20 ISPs.
The Fundació Privada per a la Xarxa Oberta, Lliure i Neutral Guifi.net (Guifi.net Foundation for the Free, Open and Neutral Network) was established in July 2008 with the foundational mission to give support to the guifi.net project. Among other tasks, it is responsible for the development and implementation of the governance tools, including the network licence, conflict settlement system, compensation system, etc. It operates guifi.net’s critical infrastructure and has expertise in full-cycle network management. It is both an NGO and a registered telecommunications operator under Spanish regulations. In 2015 it received the European Broadband Award from the European Commission.
