Last Mile - Documentary
The right to access the Internet and its infrastructure, as well as a common good, an increasingly widespread idea
Entities and companies in the Telecommunications sector organize the screening of the documentary "Last Mile" at the Ateneu Barcelonès to disseminate the shortcomings of the current model and future opportunities.
From the Guifi·net Foundation, we want to invite you next Tuesday, June 28, at quarter to seven in the afternoon, at the Oriol Bohigas room of the Ateneu Barcelonès for the screening, followed by a round table discussion, of the documentary "Last Mile" directed by Hans de Dalmau.
The documentary, which has received support from the Internet Society, is a work of the last four years and portrays, on the one hand, the current and ever-changing predominant model of the telecommunications sector: a market dominated by four major companies, where speculation and private interests act to the detriment of consumer interests. Each company deploys its network, which results in the existence of multiple infrastructures and entails a waste of resources that ultimately affects end-user prices and has an environmental impact.
On the other hand, the documentary shows that this vision is not unique and advocates the opportunity to weave networks with the conception of a community internet serving citizens, understood as a basic necessity, more sustainable and with less environmental impact that aims to facilitate and improve people's lives.
Specifically, the documentary documents the experience of the municipalities of Terres de l'Ebre, which have managed to deploy a fiber optic network where communication giants have not wanted to reach due to the little benefit it represents to deploy infrastructure in sparsely populated areas.
In fact, traditionally, the centralization of resources has led to the abandonment of less populated areas, fostering territorial inequality and, although it may seem that large companies are starting to reach these areas, they are not guaranteeing full coverage of the territory, leaving much of it with insufficient connections for the needs of the 21st century. The Generalitat has financed projects in parallel to those of large companies, but with much slower deadlines and with little results. During this legislature, the Open Network of Catalonia has been expanded, which already reached the county seats, but is still insufficient.
Taking advantage of the telecommunications sector's analysis focused on maximizing profit through speculation, overbuilding, and territorial inequality, "Last Mile" takes the opportunity to show us how the initiative of the specific case of the GRETA Network in the Ribera d'Ebre, les Garrigues and la Terra Alta arises. An infrastructure of a fiber optic network managed collaboratively, participatively, and co-financed by citizens and other territorial agents with the aim of providing quality, high-capacity Internet, more sustainable, and with a variety of local services to the population through a single network.
The documentary and, in particular, the GRETA Network highlight the role of digital/territorial policies and for which model of telecommunications infrastructures we are betting on to ensure the cohesion and territorial balance of our country. In addition to the pandemic, which has increased the need to have a good connection to be able to telecommute, continue studies, or perform daily personal or professional tasks, it has highlighted the existence of territorial and socioeconomic digital divide and how the territory is forced to seek its own solutions.
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Projecció del documental "Última Milla" a l'Ateneu Barcelonès