Gossip

WLAN local nets "can disqualify rural grant applications"

Thinking of joining a "local pressure group" to install wireless LAN technology and create an unofficial broadband system? Your Sniffer has poor news for you.

The battle doesn't end with the formation of a ginger group. There's bureaucratic insanity to deal with, too. Sniffer has the damning packets stored, and they show that qualifying for a grant is enough to disqualify you for a grant.

It works like this: the regional development authorities have £1.8bn budget in the 2004/5 financial year, "which can be applied in part to broadband where there is an identifiable market failure."

Several activists in many districts started their own companies, assuming that they will be able to get a grant. Then they set about raising capital to cover the shortfall.

So that's it, you might think.

Wrong. They have discovered that if companies are set up to provide broadband (partly using this grant money) then this proves that there is a viable business model. If they are able to create a viable company for the purpose, then obviously, there is no market failure.

So: no grant. Sorry ...

Activists are warned to find other, social reasons for having a community network, or the bureaucrats will simply withhold the money. It's believed this sort of approach has led to the collapse of several apparently profitable businesses, and may have been one of the reasons for the end of Invisible Networks.