In Broadband Cities 2008, one of the things that didn’t attract significant publicity and international attention like e.g. the signature of the iNEC declaration on Open Access by the Hellenic Central Union of Municipalities and Communitites was the creation of the first digital society in Greece. In the evening of the first day, 11 municipalities have signed “The First Digital Society in Greece” essentially agreeing to a cooperation protocol (set of principles/practices) to management and planning for each municipal fiber network within the newly formed entity. Quoting Odisseas Raptis, CEO of e-Trikala:
Following an initiative by the Municipality of Trikala, on January 18, 2007, a Cooperation Protocol was signed by eight Municipalities of Central Greece. Specifically, the Municipalities of Trikala, Larisa, Volos, Nea Ionia, Karditsa, Katerini, Lamia and Grevena agreed to establish the first digital community in Greece, in order to implement the “Creation and Operation of Digital Technology Administration Systems Aimed at the Remote Provision of Services to Citizens. Tuesday on 21 October 2008 the initiative has been enlarged to 11 municipalities including Ioannina, Kozani, Veroia
This visionary initiative by a handful of local executives wouldn’t be enough to signal a paradigm shift in contemporary municipal decision making if it was not followed by other similar plans.
And there are few that followed. On the 23rd of November, Andreas Fouras, mayor of Patra (3rd largest city in Greece) announced (see the presentation) a series of initiatives to provide broadband services via fiber to the building. The press release states that “these initiatives aim to make broadband a public good and secure a broadband fiber connection to all buildings independently of geographical disparsity“. The plan involves the establishment of a regional company called “Broadband Network of Southwest Greece” with participation of municipalities & other public stakeholders, univesrities & research institutes, that will provide the necessary experience and know-how. The company will assume management, maintenance and expansion of current public broadband infrastructures implemented under Calls 93 (fiber metro networks) & 105 (wireless access networks) of Peloponnisos, Western Greece, Ionian Islands and Epirus. According to the press release these regions constitute a geographically homogeneous area and have the necessary clientele (more than 1 million inhabitans) for a sustainable business model. The company will interconnect (backhaul) all municipal networks under one homogeneous, neutral & open inter-municipal network. Their product mix will involve wholesale offerings to telcos.
Similar aspirations are shared amongst many municipal executives in Crete and Aegean islands and a similar announcement from that end is expected in time.
A very interesting aspect of the initiatives is that they are forming around the administrative geographic regions of the European Strategic Reference Framework (ΕΣΠΑ) which would make EU funding of the projects a lot easier. Moreover, what is really intriguing is how these initiatives are synchronized with the ministry of communications FTTH plan announced in September. At the moment, it seems that these efforts are driven by local authorities and are separated from the ministry’s plans. Whether they are planned to put pressure on central government to accelerate its FTTH project, or they are genuine fiber plans that will be put in motion is something to be clarified in the future. One thing is certain, ESRF time schedule is progressing and no funds have yet been secured to sponsor fiber access. Either way, we really need to speed up things quickly in this premise.
More than a year ago, while we (NETMODE) were preparing the business plan for Eastern Sterea Ellada municipalities within the Call 93 we have proposed the creation of regional broadband infrastructure companies to incorporate both the fiber and wireless infrastructures then in construction. We have also projected that the companies wouldn’t necessary be wrapped around strict administrative regions but more likely would be build based on techno-economic mandates by neighbouring cities. We also pinpointed the potential role of regional municipalities as facilitators to the backhaul market. Here’s an excerpt from our deliverable:
[Το επιχειρηματικό σχέδιο]… Προτείνει την προαιρετική ίδρυση Περιφερειακών Εταιρειών Ευρυζωνικών Υποδομών (ΠΕΕΥ) που θα συμπεριλάβουν τα δημοτικά δίκτυα οπτικών ινών καθώς και τα δημοτικά ασύρματα δίκτυα σε μεγαλύτερους διαχειριστικούς αυτοτελείς φορείς. Με την προαιρετική ίδρυση εννοούμε ότι οι ΠΕΕΥ θα ανήκουν απ’ ευθείας στους δήμους που συμμετέχουν και ότι ο σχηματισμός των εταιριών αυτών θα βασίζεται σε τεχνο-οικονομικά κριτήρια καθώς και σε άλλες εμπορικές, λειτουργικές και διαχειριστικές προτεραιότητες. Οι δημοτικές αρχές θα μπορούν να επιλέξουν αυτοβούλως σε ποια ΠΕΕΥ θα συμμετάσχουν. Λόγω τεχνο-οικονομικών αναγκαιοτήτων, εκτιμάται ότι οι ΠΕΕΥ θα σχηματιστούν από γειτονικούς δήμους, όχι όμως απαραίτητα από την ίδια γεωγραφική ή διοικητική περιφέρεια. Ως εκ τούτου η λειτουργία των ΠΕΕΥ θα στηρίζεται, εκτός των άλλων σε έναν σημαντικό βαθμό ομογένειας ανάμεσα στα συμμετέχοντα μέλη τους. Τέλος, κάθε δήμος θα συνεισφέρει στα έσοδα της ΠΕΕΥ και στην ευρυζωνική ανάπτυξη της περιφέρειας ανάλογα του μεγέθους και των δυνατοτήτων του.
Last and not least, we were estimating that no more than 5-7 companies would be sustained due to primarily the minimum clientele requirements to make the business case viable. I find the plans of regional public local administration in excellent allignment with what we’ve proposed more than a year ago, and allow me to feel just a little good about it!
