Today we learn with sadness of the passing of the honorable Roberto Maroni.

As Minister of the Interior with Lega Nord, Maroni contributed to writing the history of one of our historic battles: the liberalization of wifi.

Lo ha fatto spingendo sull’abolizione dell’art.7 del decreto Pisanu che obbligava i gestori di qualsiasi esercizio pubblico o privato che intendevano offrire il wifi a chiedere la licenza del questore, identificare gli utenti con un documento di identità e conservare i log degli stessi in un apposito archivio.

By abolishing this constraint that was slowing down the use of wifi in Italy, the then Minister allowed the association to complete a battle that began in 2005 when our treasurer Matteo Fici wrote a letter to the then Minister of Telecommunications, Mario Landolfi, to regulate the use of WiFi for indoor hotspot applications, as we recount in this episode of our podcast: The battle for the liberation of WiFi

This story demonstrates that trade associations, like ours, can and must engage in dialogue with politics to contribute to the common good.