Broadband in Central Europe and Beyond

Broadband is proving to be a powerful engine for improving public well being and economic growth in those countries where it is applied. The EU Framework programme´s BReATH project supported the transfer of know-how and best practices in planning and delivering broadband e-services and access to the EU New Member States. This project has had dramatic economic impact on the region with significant new inward investment and reversal of the migration trend. A conclusion from this project is that ADSL provides the lowest cost access solution if the telephone infrastructure in the region is sound. Another project that investigated was the Dutch Kenniswijk experiment that installed 10 Mbit/s pipes to homes across a district using fibre to the home FTTH technology. This project aimed to develop new services that would fully exploit the wide bandwidth available, 65 new services were generated