The City of Malaga is studying the prospect of installing Wi-Fi access around the city and has received a blow from Spain’s telecom governing body, the Comisión del Mercado de las Telecomunicaciones (Telecommunications Market Commission). The proposal was to install access points inside municipal facilities with short-range access (30-100 meters), making this access limited to those physically present inside the buildings. It would consist of free and unlimited access to all city websites and limited general internet access, with security blocking against file-sharing programs. Those wishing to access the internet for mail, chat or other general-purpose browsing would have to request a time-limited username and password.

The Commission’s 8-page response includes some of the following:

• the requirement that the City of Malaga be registered as an operator, since they would be providing internet service via username/password
• providing free access would endanger the nature of open-market comptetition to a similar service
• limiting the offered service to accessing only municipal pages would not be prohibited, since this has an EU precedent from a similar request granted to the City of Prague

Nevertheless, Malaga’s mayor Francisco de la Torre is resisting the negative response and has committed to study out all possible legal possibilities of the initiative, determined to succeed. He mentioned another initiative that has begun called the WiMAX project, which would offer internet access for a cost, but which would greatly surpass the speed of simple Wi-Fi. (WiMAX is full-on broadband access using wireless radio frequencies.) WiMAX is emerging in other areas with test beds in cities such as Amsterdam (offered in the city’s centre for 20€ / month) and Portland, Oregon (USA), a key city in the international WiMAX Forum.

Discussion of a WiMAX solution brings to mind questions about the cost of new wireless cards and the feasibility for visitors, as this technology is too new for many consumers to have their laptops outfitted already. Of course, the mayor didn’t offer anything to assuage these issues. We can only assume those concerns will be addressed after a contract is signed.

The points system is having its second birthday this month. The free daily newspaper Qué! reports that since Spain instituted the points system in 2006, 4.1 million points have been taken away and 7,162 people have completely lost their licences. Points are lost by any number of reasons, including speeding, running red lights, driving without a seatbelt and drunk driving. During the course of this year, there have been 244 less deaths as consequence of driving accidents than last year, a 20% decrease.

Spanish lawmakers must see this as an opportunity to step up the safe driving campaign at the same time as they tweak other aspects of the traffic law. Up until now, new drivers have started with 8 points, while those who have driven for 3+ years started out with 12. Starting next July (2009), those who haven’t committed any driving infractions in 3 years will be rewarded with two additional points, bringing the maximum total up to 14. Keep up the safe driving folks… just because we get a few extra points doesn’t mean we should drive pedal to the metal now.

If you’re looking to get a Spanish driving licence, validate or trade in your U.K. licence, or other vehicle-related proceedings, at some point you’ll end up at the Tráfico offices. As of recently, the offices for Malaga have moved to a new spot near the university neighbourhood Teatinos and next-door to the large convention hall, the Palacio de Ferias y Congresos. (Address: Max Estrella, 12. You can catch a bus up there from the centre - look for the number 4 line on the Paseo del Parque, the tree-lined street. Trafico will be the last stop on the line. Visit our Connections page to find other bus routes on the EMT website.) The old Trafico offices were on Calle Mauricio Moro Pareto, right next to the Larios shopping centre, which is also called Eroski because of the supermarket on the bottom floor.

The other major news of note is they announced their change to reduced summer hours, 8:30 am - 1:30 pm, Monday-Friday. Summer? They normally don’t change these hours until June! Regardless, these hours will be in effect until halfway through September, so those who have morning work hours will have to plan carefully. One more thing about September — many changes will be taking place. Spain will be transforming their licence exam process, making it tougher and modernizing it (from a written to computer version), as well as splitting the motorbike licences into 3 classes, as opposed to the two current ones.

If you’re expecting to hire a car in Malaga or anywhere else in Spain really, consider yourself forewarned. First, the hard facts: recently reformed penal codes require an offence charge for drivers caught passing the speed limits by 60 km/h within city limits or by 80 km/h on the highway. This kind of charge can carry from 3 to 6 months jail time, no laughing matter to say the least. And even if you’re only speeding marginally, according to the Spanish points system, they’ll also drain your licence of between 2 and 6 points as well. (Drivers with a clean record generally start out with 12 points.)

Thought that was it? Wait, there’s more! Beginning yesterday, the government has implemented a two-week bout of radar checkpoints across the country. They’re setting them up on secondary highways, along with safety reminders on electronic panels and radio messages. In Malaga alone, they’re planning to control about 50,000 vehicles, an average of about 3,000 a day.

The Spanish authorities are doing a notable job of cracking down on irresponsible behaviour on the road, with the intention of reducing the number of accidents. So before you get into speed-demon mode behind the wheel of your car hire, think twice. Or even three times… cause it will certainly be worth your while!

VuelosBaratos – which allows travellers to quickly compare flight deals from a ton of other travel sites – ranked over 50,000 searches on their site for trips during the Easter week. Note this just takes searches into account, not actual reservations, so take this study for what it’s worth. But it’s interesting to notice how many Spanish Internet bargain shoppers opted for home turf instead of other European destinations or even further out: 15 out of the top 20 are national. Of course those that didn’t have the envied 9-day stretch of vacation mostly stuck close to home for their kick-back days, as in Andalucia the only official days off were Thursday and Friday. An interesting trend I noticed from this study: inlanders from Madrid, Seville and Granada headed to the coasts and vice-versa: coastal residents from Barcelona and Malaga escaped to the interior. You’d think we weren’t content with the natural surroundings we see every day!

But regardless, the slowing economy made a clear dent in last week’s travels, as travellers didn’t opt for many long-haul trips beyond the relatively cheaper options of New York and Cuba. Many hotels and restaurants also noted much lower profits than expected for such a normally peak week. Sounds to me like the Spanish are cinching up their belts a bit and spending instead on necessities.

At around 10 pm tonight (Spanish time) millions of viewers are expected to tune in to a debate of presidential candidates, and we’re not talking about Clinton, Obama, McCain, Huckabee, or even newcomer Nader. Gearing up for Spain’s presidential elections on March 9, incumbent Socialist José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and conservative Popular Party opponent Mariano Rajoy will face off in the first of two televised debates, the following to take place next Monday. Issues tonight will probably center around the slowing economy, terrorism flaming up recently with more ETA attacks and some other topics such as pension funds, marriage and divorce rights, and the environment. This is only the second time Spain has held televised debates since it was established as a democracy, the last time 15 years ago.

Although it has become the norm for Internet interaction in the American election process, it’s only starting to become common in Spain. The Antena 3 Media Group has created a special election portal on YouTube where users can post video questions. However, of the questions posed so far candidates have only answered a select few, steering clear of fringe issues and controversy. It remains to be seen whether they will indeed respond to any during the televised debates, to be carried by a number of major channels including La 1, La 2, Cuatro, laSexta and VEO.