Spanish Government Turns Off Free WiFi In Barcelona

While there's been a ton of coverage concerning the bill in Pennsylvania to stop municipal broadband offerings, and how that could derail Philadelphia's WiFi plans, there's a more interesting case over in Barcelona. There, the city had already set up a free WiFi system, though it was quite limited. It was designed so users could just view 60 websites related to information and services for the city. However, even though the system was already built, and only offered in this limited way, the Spanish Telecommunications Market Commission has forced the city to turn off the network, claiming it violates competition rules (found via Broadband Reports). It's hard to see how a WiFi network that only lets you visit 60 specific websites is competing with anything, but apparently those are finer points that the Commission didn't want to bother explaining. It's also difficult to see how the added competition of another network can go against competition rules. Isn't more competition a good thing?