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In rural communities in Lower Austria, where telecom companies had not invested for 15 years, the State took action, creating a company dedicated to bringing broadband access to over 450,000 people. Vice President of the nöGIG company, Igor Brusic, explained: “Without broadband, the inhabitants and companies are forced to move from these rural areas to urban ones. Investing or building up a financial structure and attracting capital for rural areas is something that makes this project unique”. This project was a finalist in the 2019 European Broadband Awards.

In the German state of Baden-Württemberg, the District of Calw is a rural region encompassing 25 towns over 800 km2 of hills and valleys in the Black Forest. The challenging terrain makes the deployment of broadband cables both complicated and expensive. Many areas in the region are underserved as a result. In 2017, the District began a broadband initiative to connect its 25 communities with a 386 km Next Generation Access (NGA) backbone network, as well as mobile coverage via masts. Both federally and regionally funded, the project reduced costs by re-using existing infrastructure.

The Italian region of Emilia Romagna launched a free public WiFi network with 5000 hotspots across the region’s towns and mountains, with a density of one hotspot for every 1000 people. In an effort to close the digital divide and give all citizens the opportunity to access the internet and online services, hotspots were created in public spaces including sports centres, hospitals, libraries and beaches. The hotspots offer potential speeds of up to 1 Gbps, as each is connected via fibre optic cable.

The Latvian State Radio and Television Centre obtained EU funding in order to bring broadband connectivity to rural areas in Latvia where there was no commercial interest in investing. A passive middle mile backbone network was built, bringing fibre access to a total of 150,000 properties. The project was 85% funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and was a finalist in the 2018 European Broadband Awards.

This is a handbook for rural policy makers and broadband project managers who wish to roll-out high-speed networks in rural or remote territories, effectively and efficiently. It aims to help these areas overcome the digital divide affecting their citizens, communities and economic activities, by taking a closer look at the success factors and good practices demonstrated by 12 rural broadband project case studies.

Emergency situations prove that it is essential for every citizen in Europe to have access to high-speed connectivity. Europe is building up the Gigabit Society in rural and urban areas, enabling teleworking, online access to goods, e-health, e-education and socialising. EU funding supports high-speed broadband projects. You can trigger a broadband project in your area if you are a project promoter, citizens’ cooperative, public entity or telecom operator. Engage with your nearest Broadband Competence Office.

In the rural Bavarian municipality of Senden, in Germany, citizens formed a cooperative in order to create and invest in their own high-speed broadband network. By teaming up with the local administration and securing investment from telecommunications company Deutsche Glasfaser, they brought 1 Gbps Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) connectivity to over 650 homes and farmsteads. The project revitalised business in the area and helped retain its population.

In the rural Croatian community of Drnje, the community council decided to co-finance the creation of a Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) network in order to bring over 100 Mbps connectivity to local businesses, citizens and public entities. This co-financing enabled the transformation of the original plan for broadband development in the area, in which a local Internet Service Provider had intended to build a wireless network offering maximum speeds of only 30 Mbps. The local mayor made this decision because high-speed broadband is essential for encouraging young people to build their lives there.

85% funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, the PRIP2 project’s goal was to bring Next Generation Access to agri-businesses in rural areas where there was no connectivity and no commercial interest in providing it. Through 342.6 km of optic fibre infrastructure, PRIP2 provided the ‘backbone’ necessary to bring service providers to these areas, where they only need to build the ‘last mile’ connection to end users. These customers – farmer homesteads, food processing companies and other agricultural business centres – then have the choice of operators and services.

The Connecting Europe Broadband Fund (CEBF) is a private equity platform supporting the Gigabit Society objectives by promoting broadband investment in areas with no existing network and no provision of early stage equity. The fund’s investors include the European Commission, the European Investment Bank, national promotional banks and private investors. The first CEBF-signed project is RuNe, a €250 million cross-border project bringing gigabit-speed connectivity to 340,000 rural homes in Slovenia and Croatia.