How can Wi-Fi benefit a small town or village?
The best way to illustrate this is to give an example. The small rural town of Piraí, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has a population of around 20,000 people. It had a few local industries but suffered a serious economic setback when one of the industries shut down. The town was facing a serious financial crisis, and the mayor came to the conclusion that he would have to raise taxes to ensure the financial stability of the town. The most obvious way to do this was to tax property, but, as yet, there was no register of properties in the town. With the help of funding from the state of Rio and a telecommunications company, a set of Wi-Fi internet kiosks were placed throughout the town where owners could register and claim their properties online. As well as raising taxes, the scheme stimulated the local economy, as it created a formal housing sales market. In turn, this created a mortgage market and gave houses a real value, making it financially interesting for the owners. At t
