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- | ====== Country Name ====== | ||
- | This document is intended as a guide and a template for the country profiles. | ||
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- | The page is organised according to the categories that are expected within each country profile. | ||
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- | The wiki is also designed to capture some of the information as fields in a database that will allow for some comparative analysis across countries. These fields are entered below the wiki in the form fields and are displayed in the wiki page as a variable. Items captured in the database are displayed in a table, as in the above. Database fields can be exported to spreadsheet, | ||
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- | <callout type=" | ||
- | <callout type=" | ||
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- | ===== National Policy ===== | ||
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- | In each country there are different set of policies that frame and give direction to the telecommunications sector, within which most small operators, and community networks operate. In those policies there might be provision that favor or disable the activities of this operators. | ||
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- | In some countries these provisions might be included all the way in the country constitution, | ||
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- | In most countries, the telecoms sector is framed around a Communications, | ||
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- | Finally, most governments establish the performance targets they want to achieve in the sector in National Plans. Most countries have a Broadband plan, which is worth reviewing to understand the role governments expect from this small operators. Additionally, | ||
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- | In this section, you should provide links to key policies, acts, or even elements of the constitution that may have relevance for community networks and small-scale operators attempting to address the unserved. | ||
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- | This may include national ICT strategies/ | ||
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- | <callout type=" | ||
- | * Is there any mention to rights of indigenous population with regards to sovereignty over their land and/or the use of other natural resources (i.e. spectrum)? | ||
- | * Which mechanisms has your Administration implemented for the provision of telecommunication services/ | ||
- | * Has your country shown progress or taken any action in the instrumentation | ||
- | * Does your Country have plans to implement any of these measures? If yes, please describe the case and indicate sources for further information. (ITU-D 19) | ||
- | * Has your Country considered or implemented regulatory measures to allow small, non-profit or community operators access to spectrum resources and backbone networks? If yes, please describe the case and indicate sources for further information. (ITU-D 19) | ||
- | * Has your Country published any studies or statistical information about small and non-profit community operators in rural and remote areas? (ITU-D 19) | ||
- | </ | ||
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- | ===== Operator Licensing ===== | ||
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- | Laws and regulations vary from country to country in terms of what sort of license is or is not required to operate a communication network. This can range from no license requirement at all to a range of different kinds of licenses. | ||
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- | This trend is known as a unified licensing regime and while the ultimate end of unified licensing might be a single type of license, the most common formulation of unified licensing is to have one license for infrastructure (the physical assets e.g. cables, base stations, routers, earth stations, etc. that make up the network) and a license for services (bandwidth services, packet switching, VoIP, steaming media, etc delivered over the network). | ||
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- | New technology has blurred the boundaries for some of these licenses. Inexpensive WiFi equipment is technically " | ||
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- | Another key criterion for licensing relates to whether the operator is providing commercial services to a third-party. | ||
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- | License may also be broken down according to the turnover generated by the organisation. | ||
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- | Another type of organisation is one that owns communication infrastructure but which does not operate the infrastructure. | ||
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- | The above licenses may all be national in scope or they may have both a national and a sub-regional version. | ||
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- | Finally, there may be license exemptions that are available for any of the above categories based on specific criteria such as operating as a not-for-profit or providing services to underserved regions. | ||
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- | ==== Technical and Administrative Requirements ==== | ||
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- | The technical and administrative requirements for licenses vary from country to country but typically requirements may include some combination of: | ||
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- | * proof of incorporation in the country | ||
- | * proof of duly registered office and permanent address | ||
- | * details of shareholders and directors | ||
- | * proof of local ownership/ | ||
- | * proof of tax compliance | ||
- | * network design | ||
- | * business model | ||
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- | Different licenses may have different types of requirements. | ||
- | ==== Licensing Fees ==== | ||
- | A table is often useful to break down the fees associated with different kinds of licenses. | ||
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- | {{: | ||
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- | or [[https:// | ||
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- | {{: | ||
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- | <callout type=" | ||
- | * Has your Administration considered specific licensing mechanisms that facilitate the deployment of broadband services in rural and remote areas? (ITU-D 19) | ||
- | * Does your Country have licenses to attend specifically underserved areas, such as rural operator license, social license, small operator license, community operator license, etc.? (ITU-D 19) | ||
- | * Is there a specific license for the provision of services in remote or underserved areas in your Country? (ITU-D 19) | ||
- | * What kinds of operator licenses are there? | ||
- | * Are there licenses for small operators? | ||
- | * Do ISPs have specfic licenses? | ||
- | * What kinds of organisations qualify for license exemption? | ||
- | </ | ||
- | ===== Access to Spectrum ===== | ||
- | The electromagnetic spectrum is the medium used by wireless technologies to transmit and receive information. Different parts of this spectrum are defined to be used for specific purposes. This decisions are made at the World Radio Conference (WRC) which is organised by ITU-R and which happens every four years. The outcome of the WRC is the ITU Radio Regulations which is a binding international treaty governing the use of the radio spectrum. | ||
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- | (Maybe something about regions?) | ||
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- | Governments incorporate those regulations into their National Frequency Allocation Tables or National Frequency Plans, which is the first document to consult in order to understand which services can be used in each band. In most cases, for each band governments include both the reference to the Radio Regulation which describe the specific of this band, as well as the National Regulation describing the details of the use of that band in the country. | ||
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- | (Maybe an example of this?) | ||
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- | In addition, for most of the spectrum governments assign the use of an entire band or blocks of it to particular organizations. This assignment can be of national, regional, or even smaller scope (for a given are or a point to point link), and tend to be for a particular period of time. There also different ways of assigning parts of the spectrum. This can be done via auctions, where the best bidder wins; reservation, | ||
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- | There are bands which are not assigned to a particular organization for a period of time, and access to them is more adhoc, with organizations interested in using it organized themselves via technological means, or otherwise. There are two main ways in which this takes place and we go into them in more details below, referring to them as License-exempt and Secondary Use, respectively. | ||
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- | In all cases above, the spectrum can be used for two very distinctive purposes, regardless of the mechanism used to access it: access and transport. The first one refers to the use of the spectrum for users or end devices to communicate; | ||
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- | ==== Technical and Administrative Requirements ==== | ||
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- | The technical and administrative requirements for each modality of accessing spectrum (licensed spectrum, license-exempt spectrum, and secondary use) as well as for each of the uses it can have (access and transport) will vary and should be included in detail below. As a departing point, this section should include a reference to the most up to date National Frequency Allocation Tables or National Frequency Plans (they get renewed almost every year in most countries). | ||
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- | === Licensed === | ||
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- | Something about interference here... and the need to regulate! | ||
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- | == Access Networks == | ||
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- | Most of the licensed spectrum that is available for access it is used for mobile telephony and data, and tends to be referred to as International Mobile Telephony (IMT) bands. | ||
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- | The main reason to understand how access to IMT spectrum takes place in your country is because we acknowledge that the best way for universal access to occur is for communities to operate this spectrum where available. | ||
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- | In some cases a band is not fully allocated and we could convince the government to create set-asides for social use. Other times the band is fully assigned to operators but unused in given areas (normally rural and sparsely populated ones). In yet other cases, the band has not been yet assigned which allows for engagement with the authorities for set-asides earlier on. The aim for this section is to provide a view on the possibilities available in that regard. | ||
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- | For some countries, we have been collecting some of this information, | ||
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- | ^ **Issues** | ||
- | | Band assigned? | ||
- | | Assignment method | ||
- | | Fully assigned | ||
- | | Primary use by CN? | | ||
- | | Secondary use by CN? | | ||
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- | Rows in the table: | ||
- | * Has this band being assigned in your country?: Yes/No | ||
- | * Method of assignment?: | ||
- | * Is there spectrum yet to be assigned is this band: Yes / No / D.N.A. | ||
- | * Are there reports of spectrum assigned but not used in an area? Yes / No / D.N.A. | ||
- | * Can it be used by community networks and small operators? Yes / No / D.N.A. | ||
- | * Indicate the community networks and small operators using them? Org name / D.N.A | ||
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- | [For each of the answers where the answer is yes, please provide a link] | ||
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- | [In the case there are community networks using it, please describe the process followed to do so by others] | ||
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- | [There are different mechanisms to “provide evidence” to answer question 4, if you have the knowledge that this is the case. One is by checking the maps provided by the operators, another one is by reports that you may find in the news. You can also conduct spectrum measurements yourself (a description on how to do this to follow)] | ||
- | Once this spectrum is assigned to one organization, | ||
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- | (I can share the ones from Vodacom, MTN, Cell, other in SA for 900 MHz and 1800MHz) | ||
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- | == PtP Networks == | ||
- | In most scenarios the use of ISM bands for broadband transport links is sufficient and has all the advantages related to it: license exempt spectrum, highly available low-cost gear, etc. However, there might be places, specially in links going through nodes in crowded highsites, where the use of those bands may be good alternative. | ||
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- | The band considered below, 7GHz and 11 GHz are the most common ones and it below we would like to determine the requirements to using them. | ||
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- | ^ **Issues** | ||
- | | Band assigned? | ||
- | | Assignment method | ||
- | | Fully assigned | ||
- | | Primary use by CN? | | ||
- | | Secondary use by CN? | | ||
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- | Rows in the table: | ||
- | * Has this band being assigned in your country?: Yes/No | ||
- | * Method of assignment?: | ||
- | * Is there spectrum yet to be assigned is this band: Yes / No / D.N.A. | ||
- | * Are there reports of spectrum assigned but not used in an area? Yes / No / D.N.A. | ||
- | * Can it be used by community networks and small operators? Yes / No / D.N.A. | ||
- | * Indicate the community networks and small operators using them? Org name / D.N.A | ||
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- | [For each of the answers where the answer is yes, please provide a link] | ||
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- | Once this spectrum is assigned to one organization, | ||
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- | === License-Exempt === | ||
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- | == Access Networks == | ||
- | ^ **Frequency** | ||
- | | // | ||
- | | 902 – 928 MHz | '' | ||
- | | // | ||
- | | 2400 – 2483.5 MHz | '' | ||
- | | // | ||
- | | 5150-5250 MHz | '' | ||
- | | 5250-5350 MHz | '' | ||
- | | 5470-5725 MHz | '' | ||
- | | 5725-5800 MHz | '' | ||
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- | == PtP Networks == | ||
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- | ^ **Frequency** | ||
- | | // | ||
- | | 2400 – 2483.5 MHz | '' | ||
- | | // | ||
- | | 5150-5250 MHz | '' | ||
- | | 5250-5350 MHz | '' | ||
- | | 5470-5725 MHz | '' | ||
- | | 5725-5800 MHz | '' | ||
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- | * Point to rules for license-exempt spectrum use? | ||
- | * Is registration required for WiFi? | ||
- | * What is the process for homologation / type approval? | ||
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- | // Agree with 1 and 3, as they apply to all license-exempt bands, not only WiFi, anything on WiFi, would have to go under WiFi. // | ||
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- | // Then I would add a subcategory for WiFi /ISM Bands and potentially two tables one for access and one for backhaul, so they don't get too crowded. Some bands within wiFi may only be " | ||
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- | // In the table I would allow for EIRP, but also for TxPower, and also for some explanations... like increase your Gain by X everytime you reduce your TxPower by Y // | ||
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- | I wonder what do we do with 900 MHz, for instance. | ||
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- | // Maybe add a subcategory for potential articles or discussions on the expansion of this band? // | ||
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- | // Maybe add a subcategory on examples in this band (Cns, small operators, and the like) // | ||
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- | // If we refer to bands, I would call this section mmBand? and would only focus on the license-exempt component of them (in the case of SA there are some, maybe we can use the ones in the Spectrum paper that we have identified to be exempted elsewhere (24.05 – 24.25 GHz, 57 -64 GHz, 64 - 71 GHz, 71 – 76 GHz, 81-86 GHz), I would move 11GHz to licensed... | ||
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- | Frequencies for microwave links outside of 2.4GHz and 5GHz | ||
- | 11GHz 24GHz 60GHz and other | ||
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- | === Secondary Use === | ||
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- | == Access Networks == | ||
- | == PtP Networks == | ||
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- | * Information on TVWS or other dynamic spectrum pilots. | ||
- | * Pending rules for TVWS | ||
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- | ==== Spectrum Fees / Costs ==== | ||
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- | === Application === | ||
- | === Annual === | ||
- | === Auction === | ||
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- | <callout type=" | ||
- | * [[https:// | ||
- | * [[https:// | ||
- | </ | ||
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- | // similar to the above I will add subcategory of news items points to a potential change as well as potential examples using this band. // | ||
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- | // As with the licensing, I would add here another subgatery about compliance and other costs... | ||
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- | For instance, it is here were I would use the USOs. The more I think about it, the more I think that license | ||
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- | But also the taxes on the benefits of using the spectrum, which was a big thing in the last court case won by Rhizomatica, | ||
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- | Both here and in the Fees above, we can explore whether a given Administration offer incentives that include lower rates of payment for the use of spectrum when it is to be used in isolated and underserved areas? | ||
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- | ===== Backhaul ===== | ||
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- | Backhaul refers to the source of connectivity for a network. | ||
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- | Increasing demand from internet users for access to streaming media content can dramatically increase the backhaul requirements for a community network or small-scale operator. | ||
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- | Accordingly, | ||
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- | Fibre optic infrastructure is not the only option for backhaul. | ||
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- | In this section of the profile you will also be looking for policies and regulations related to backhaul infrastructure. | ||
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- | Finally, public information on backhaul pricing is [[good-practice: | ||
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- | <callout type=" | ||
- | * [[https:// | ||
- | * [[http:// | ||
- | * [[http:// | ||
- | </ | ||
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- | ===== Gender ===== | ||
- | Internet access is an effect magnifier that can amplify access to education, markets for business, and strengthen and increase social connection. | ||
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- | Some places to start with this include looking for gender-disaggregated national statistics on communication network access as well as any research into gender and ICTs in your country. | ||
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- | It is also worth looking directly at the communication regulator. | ||
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- | * number of men in senior management at regulator | ||
- | * number of women in senior management at regulator '' | ||
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- | <callout type=" | ||
- | * [[https:// | ||
- | * [[https:// | ||
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- | </ | ||
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- | ===== Universal Service ===== | ||
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- | Universal Service in telecommunications refers to the policy of providing some level of service to all citizens. | ||
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- | Another way in which universal service policies may manifest themselves is in coverage obligations attached to operator licenses, often to spectrum licenses purchased at auction. You may wish to list them here or in the spectrum licensing section and provide a link/ | ||
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- | In this part of the profile, you should point to national universal service policies and obligations. | ||
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- | Does your Country offer support for local entrepreneurs that are implementing sustainable business models for the development of rural communications, | ||
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- | <callout type=" | ||
- | * [[http:// | ||
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- | </ | ||
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- | ===== Cooperatives ===== | ||
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- | The [[https:// | ||
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- | <callout type=" | ||
- | * [[http:// | ||
- | * [[https:// | ||
- | * [[http:// | ||
- | </ | ||
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- | ===== Resources / References ===== | ||
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- | This last section is optional and can be used to point to additional national resources or information that is relevant to community networks and/or small-scale operators that is not captured in the above categories. | ||
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- | ---- | ||
- | == Coding examples == | ||
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- | Within the wiki you can use this special formatting comments to highlight particularly important information, | ||
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- | <callout type=" | ||
- | <callout type=" | ||
- | <callout type=" | ||
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