Municipal broadband access networks in the Netherlands - three successful cases, and how New Europe may benefit

In the Netherlands there have been various successful municipal broadband access network projects in the last few years, and many more projects are taking shape at this moment. Some of them are targeting business, others aim to connect residents, and there are projects which fully include both in their strategy. In this paper we present three successful Dutch cases of municipal broadband access networks that target residents and SOHOs: Kenniswijk, OnsNet Nuenen and Wireless Leiden. For each case, we have taken a thorough look at the following aspects: background, business model, broadband network, e-services, consumers & promotion, problems, success factors and (intermediate) outcomes. Here we describe the main findings of this analysis. As a next step, we illustrate how these cases and the lessons learned from them may be of benefit to the development of broadband infrastructure and e-services in other countries. In particular, we describe how the European FP6 IST project BReATH uses this knowledge to help the New Member States of the European Union, in order to bridge the digital divide that currently exists throughout Europe.