Kees Rovers

Director and Founder, Close the Gap BV, Ons Net, The Netherlands

Kees Rovers

Director Close the Gap BV Founder Ftth Coöperative Ons

Net (Our Net) Contact:kees@closethegap.nl

Nuenen: A proven concept

Vienna, 1st December 2008 Arial12 p

The Lisbon strategy: a key role for citizens

Citizens are prepared to• Take initiatives• Show solidarity (e-inclusion)• Participate in cooperative enterprises (social enterprises)

– Define common interest– Not afraid of ‘Creative destruction’– Using disruptive technologies

• Take the lead in innovation• Give them a (local) platform to act• Look at Nuenen (OurNet/OurWellbeing)

Problems facing society today

• Our problems of today’s society– Aging population– Concentration of aging population– Need for Care, Security, Entertainment, Comfort,

Communication, Education– Environmental problems– Changing economic structure– Rising new economies, financial crisis– Misunderstanding between people, races and religions– Citizens: fearing the future. – Lisbon Agenda: part of the solutions. Explain this to citizens

Ftth NuenenA Citizens’ initiative

Population Nuenen

• 25,000 inhabitants• Concentration of elderly• High average income and education• Eagerly receptive to new technologies• Involved in local societies and

organisations• Direct communications and feedback

Ftth Infrastructure Nuenen • 8500 homes connected to fiber (copper and coax)

– Highest Ftth density in the world– 90% Take-up rate for fiber– Each home 2 fibers (point to point)– 150 kilometer of trenches, 3000 km of fiber (6 months)– 100 mbits/sec symmetrical

• All schools, churches, general practitioners, town halls, sports clubs, home care institutes, hospitals, houses for elderly and disabled. The connected community.

• Owned (95%) by Cooperative Ons Net (Our Net)

The Government Initiative that Created an Earthquake!

• 40 million € subvention for Ftth testbed– Ministery of economic affairs– Year 2000 (lisbon-agenda) – 40.000 homes– Eindhoven region

• Incumbent & cable operator: no action 3 yrs• Minister decided to support Nuenen-initiative• Protest came from association of cable-operators

– Letters to the Ministers– Letters to the parliament– State-aid conformity, national and european laws

• Incumbent & cable operator lost marketshare (90%) in 6 months– Earthquake in telecom- & cable world

Business Model Nuenen• New Business Model: The Close the Gap-model• The Local Telecommunication Cooperation: a Cooperative• Financed by the Members (prefinanced by investors &

subvention)• Democratic Principle:

– Delivers benefits for its members– Owned and controlled by its members

• Customer- and Community-generated broadband-services• Long term return on investment• Not for profit (Utility)• Citizen Participation leads to High Level of Penetration (97 %)

7 pillars of success• Business-case• Us-feeling• 3 basic services• Communication• Local Broadband services• Customer-care• Reliable network

Our Net and Our Wellbeing

• A new ecosystem• Brings prosperity to the individual and

society• Based on broadband and new technologies• Designed by and for the local community• Industry invited to participate

- Deliver products and services

Discover the needs of citizens

• Start with: user feedback committee• Organise workshops with citizens groups:

especially elderly• Communicate on street and area level• Give citizens the lead in this process• Create an “us” feeling• Enable unity within the community

Organizational Facilities• User feedback committee• Meeting and practical demonstration

facilities• Support from the Ons Net Cooperative• Support from local, regional and national

authorities• Special entity for developing broadband

services: Ons Welzijn (Our Wellbeing)

Workshops: Our Well-being

• Citizens are leading• Goal is: integration of services hardware

– Home entertainment– Home monitoring– Home care– Comfortable life-style

• Value chain innovation vs Product innovation

Where is the Innovation???

Suppliers The Firm Channel

Sheet:(Prahalad)

The Basic Transformation inNuenen

Suppliers The Firm Channel

CloseTheGap

Value

chain

United

Consumers:

Designing

Products &

servicesSheet:Prahalad

Lessons learned Nuenen• Innovation= market disruption• KPN and UPC lost 97% market-share in 6 months (the

earthquake)• In most competitive market Broadband• Pricing of triple play is not the issue• Citizens sign in for “quality of life services”.

– Home-entertainment, Home-care, Home monitoring, Comfortable lifestyle

• Eindhoven Region: Achieved Lisbon-agenda in 2008 (Brainport Eindhoven)

• Kees Rovers: Knight in the order of Orange-Nassau

Big News! The Renaissance• After Nuenen 2004: Reggefiber announced

Ftth roll-out 150.000 homes pr year• 2008: KPN 41% shares Reggefiber

– Reggefiber: 5 cities Ftth– KPN: 5 cities Fttc– Community marketing concept: Nuenen– Local Broadbandservices: Our Wellbeing Nuenen– MyCity2010 (lisbon-agenda)

MyCity2010• 3 month programme

– Based on the Lisbon agenda• E-inclusion programme

• Paid for by KPN• Creating awareness at neighbourhood and street level

– Local broadband services• Creating a Our Well-Being Coop• Implement existing bb-services• Initiating new bb-services• Independent from sales activies of KPN• Execution by Close the Gap

Contact• Kees@closethegap.nl

Home lab users

• Banks• Universities• Industry• Hospitals• Housing co

operations• Local, regional and

national authorities

• Health insurance companies

• Telecoms• Publishers• Elderly

organisations • Churches

Nuenen; Real life Homelab for Broadband services;

www.closethegap.nl

Our Net/Our Wellbeing

Contact details

• Kees Rovers kees@closethegap.nl

Creative DestructionA term coined by Joseph Schumpeter in his

work entitled "Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy" (1942) to denote a "process of industrial mutation that incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one."

A disruptive technology or disruptive innovation

is a term describing a technological innovation, product, or service that uses a "disruptive" strategy, rather than an "evolutionary" or "sustaining" strategy, to overturn the existing dominant technologies or status quo products in a market.