Site allocation

Once a site is designated by using the planning procedure, it might be a tedious task to get permission from the different building-owners to have the antennas and equipment installed. Because of the not-for-profit and volunteer-driven nature of this project, it might be difficult to explain to the building owner that we are not able to pay the same amount of money as a cellular phone provider. A cellular provider will easily pay up to Euro 10,000 each month for a location. We, as Wireless Leiden affiliated volunteers, have organized ourselves in an official charitable trust (foundation) with a statute, and this foundation has managed to generate some positive publicity. Being an official foundation with some media exposure and a good story - a free, fast community network - has been helpful in gaining rooftop access free of charge. Having access to people knowledgeable on building and safety issues ensures a setup according to all local building regulations, like measures against lightning strikes.

Locations that are important to the community, like schools or the Town Hall, are target locations to set up nodes. Also cooperating commercial enterprises that want to provide services on the network or want to make use of the network for private communications (e.g. between different branch offices) are quite willing to invest in the equipment and time to set up and maintain a node.