A community broadband initiative delivered fast broadband access to hundreds of residents in a sparsely populated region of Kuhmo in eastern Finland.
A local cooperative benefitted from RDP support to deliver a fibre-optic broadband network to seven villages in north-western Kuhmo. The cooperative achieved buy-in from the wider community through local discussions on the potential benefits.
With the commitment of local people - who contributed time and machinery - the necessary investment was made in the construction of a fibre-optic network – mainly through earthworks. Simultaneously, negotiations by the cooperative led to the big national operator TeliaSonera being selected as a service provider and the north-western Kuhmo network was successfully connected.