Tags: eHealth  Digital inclusion  Better public services

Walsall Regeneration Company is leading the way in developing the first 'OurNet' community-owned FTTH project in the West Midlands.

WRC is planning a major new business development in the centre of the town including high speed fibre connections. The chair of WRC heard a CBN presentation about the Dutch OnsNet project and immediately saw the potential benefits for the wider community in Walsall.

CBN was asked to produce a scoping study looking at the potential for an 'OurNet' fibre to the home project in Birchills, a poor community next to the centre. This was followed up in July 2008 with a successful one day conference bringing together local stakeholders from the housing, health, education, business, regeneration, social enterprise and other sectors. Kees Rovers from OnsNet in the Netherlands spoke, enthusing the participants with his 'can-do' community-based approach. OurNet in Walsall will be a first for the West Midlands and a first for the UK.