The Community Broadband Network (CBN) is a British
social enterprise
A social enterprise is an organization that applies commercial strategies to maximize improvements in financial, social and environmental well-being. This may include maximizing social impact alongside profits for co-owners.
Social enterprises ca ...
which supports and develops community-led
broadband
In telecommunications, broadband is wide bandwidth data transmission which transports multiple signals at a wide range of frequencies and Internet traffic types, that enables messages to be sent simultaneously, used in fast internet connections. ...
initiatives.
History
CBN was launched in the United Kingdom during January 2004 by the then Rural Affairs Minister
Alun Michael
Alun Edward Michael (born 22 August 1943) is a Welsh Labour politician serving as South Wales Police and Crime Commissioner since 2012. He served as Secretary of State for Wales from 1998 to 1999 and then as the first First Secretary of Wales ...
and Broadband Minister
Stephen Timms
Sir Stephen Creswell Timms (born 29 July 1955) is a British politician who served as Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2006 to 2007. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for East Ham, formerly Newham North East ...
; at this time the UK was lagging behind neighboring developed countries in the provision of first generation broadband services, leaving significant holes in availability. Many of these "notspots" were in rural areas or were the focus of economic regeneration programmes; local community organizations were beginning to develop their own services typically using
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio w ...
wireless technology but often without specialist telecommunications knowledge within their groups. CBN was founded as a co-operative of such groups, able to provide support and specialist skills to its members; during 2004-5 CBN supported over 100 local broadband projects with direct consultancy and mentoring, and provided online information and support for a further 200.
Today
With first generation broadband widely available in the UK, CBN's focus shifted towards the community led higher-speed next-generation broadband services, including fibre-optic networks. In 2006 CBN signed a joint venture agreement with Dutch consultancy Close the Gap, which was responsible for conceiving, planning and delivering the OnsNet (“our net” in English) Fibre to the Home (
Ftth
Fiber to the ''x'' (FTTX; also spelled "fibre") or fiber in the loop is a generic term for any broadband network architecture using optical fiber to provide all or part of the local loop used for last mile telecommunications. As fiber optic ...
) project in the market town of
Nuenen
Nuenen () is a town in the municipality of Nuenen, Gerwen en Nederwetten in the Netherlands. From 1883 to 1885, Vincent van Gogh lived and worked in Nuenen. In 1944, the town was a battle scene during Operation Market Garden. The local dialect is ...
and then in
Eindhoven
Eindhoven () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the southern province of North Brabant of which it is its largest. With a population of 238,326 on 1 January 2022,Broadband stakeholder group, the body that brings together government, industry, Regional Development Agencies, and business to drive forward the UK's broadband agenda.
:* A member of the NOMAD Wireless Forum bringing together a range of public sector and private organisations active in promoting wireless initiatives.
:* A member of the Connected Neighbourhood Forum linking the 10 local authority Digital Challenge finalists.
:* An invited participator in the high level summit organised by minister Stephen Timms in November 2007 to discuss policy on
Next Generation Access
Fiber to the ''x'' (FTTX; also spelled "fibre") or fiber in the loop is a generic term for any broadband network architecture using optical fiber to provide all or part of the local loop used for last mile telecommunications. As fiber optic ...
in the UK.
CBN’s experience has attracted international attentionStart of Web4Dev (Nov 2007). and they are developing community broadband projects in Africa supported by
UN-HABITAT
The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is the United Nations programme for human settlements and sustainable urban development. It was established in 1977 as an outcome of the first United Nations Conference on Human Settl ...
.
In 2008 Francesco Caio, in his report at barriers to broadband investment for the British Government, referred to CBN's scenario work which described a "patchwork quilt" of broadband infrastructures rather than a single "da wo" (big me) incumbent network owner. This led to Lord Carter recommending that CBN be assisted in creating a national framework in his Digital Britain report.
In 2009, CBN has been facilitating the creation of the Independent Networks Co-operative Association (INCA)http://www.inca.coop/ INCA website to meet the Digital Britain recommendations. INCA is essentially a trade association for independent network operators in the UK who are investing alternative next generation broadband infrastructures.