In 2013, because of the joint efforts between Rhizomatica, Redes por la Diversidad, Equidad y Sustentabilidad A.C. (REDES A.C.) and those in charge of a community radio in small village called Talea de Castro, in the state of Oaxaca, it was possible to create a mobile indigenous telephony completely operated, owned and managed by the community itself.

What makes this service different from other mobile telephonies is that this one belongs entirely to the community, which decides who is responsible for the managing the network, how it will operate and even how much it costs. Currently, this telephony is run through the legal figure of a cooperative called Telecomunicaciones Indígenas Comunitarias A.C. (TIC A.C.), comprised by 14 operating communities, which cover 63 localities.

This case is a clear example of how there are existing ways of generating spaces of autonomy in the telecommunications. The development of this experience was based on the efforts between hacker communities from different parts of the world and indigenous communities in Oaxaca and what they have developed is a cell phone system that does not depend on large companies. In fact, in Mexico, this telephony is considered as one of the four operators that currently exist.

The communities are the ones that pay for the necessary infrastructure to operate and they are also the ones who decide, usually in an assembly, who will take charge of administering the network; therefore, there is no specific owner, but the community itself and the traditional idea that only through competition and private property is how you can access these communication tools is disrupted. TIC A.C. provides the technical and logistical elements for the operation of the network in each community. Thus, the costs are much lower than when contracting large company plans because the income is used for the maintenance and the operation of the network. Moreover, when there are surpluses, the community decides to use this money for projects that benefit collectively.

https://www.tic-ac.org/

• Oaxaca, Mexico

• Indigenous and nomadic peoples
• Remote and rural communities

The community mobile telephony can be replicated from different channels, when taking into account the socio-economic, cultural, political and geographical characteristics of the communities in which there is an interest. The entire model can be consulted in the Community Cellular Network Manual that was developed to generate replicability in other contexts.

First, at a technological level, all the software developments that have been implemented have open source, which allows other people to access and modify it. Additionally, the advances in the selection of hardware can be also replicated in other contexts.

At the organizational level, the replicability of these networks is possible thanks to a model in which the association consists of people and communities interested in the installation, operation or improvement of the community cellular telephone networks. Communities can become operators through if they express to desire it and with the consensus of their assemblies and authorities. The figures taken by each of the partners are those of technicians, operators, pre-operators or sympathizers. The partners, depending on their type of secondment, will have different responsibilities and will have to abide by the constituent rules of the association derived from consensus in the governing bodies of the same.

In the legal aspect, the legal framework and the precedent set in Mexico allow other countries to replicate the regulation model that allows the development of this type of projects that take into account the conjunction of the right to communication, international treaties and particular rights of indigenous peoples.

In the architecture model of the economic basis of this project, Braudel (1980) identifies three levels, each with its own institutions: the world economy, the local economy or the market economy and the subsistence economy. For him, the fact that the subsistence economy is regulated through public policies as if it were the global one is the most common mistake.

For this reason, telecommunications projects in rural areas generated outside communities often fail to consolidate.

In this way, taking into account the recommendations of this author and the case of community cellular telephony, each element of the network has a model of its own organization according to the type of economy in which it operates. So the local network that operates in a subsistence economy is managed by the community; the transport network is operated by a local company and, finally, the backbone network is served by a global company. At the same time, in this model the community is part of an association/cooperative that is capable of dealing in a global economy given its integration.

The community cellular networks, like other telecommunications projects that seek to generate different ways of connecting people who do not yet have other services, have been consolidated as projects that through the appropriation of technologies and access to information achieve establish the bases for the attainment of other fundamental human rights. Therefore, adhering to the values ​​of WSIS, through coordinated work and constant dialogue between different interest groups, commanded by the communities that now have the service, a communication model was designed that could be relevant to the way of life of the indigenous peoples of Oaxaca and the needs that arise through the consolidation of the Information Society. Through the economic, legal, organizational and technological bases of the model, WSIS values ​​promotion processes are generated, such as the promotion of culture and one's own language, the promotion of human rights or the sharing of knowledge