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Stuck in the broadband slow lane
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11 June 2008 |
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In Nuenen, a mid-sized town in the centre of the Netherlands, there is a statue of Vincent Van Gogh, who lived and briefly painted there, and it is famous for a decisive Second World War battle in September 1944. Today, the town is seen as a high-tech model, the ultimate wired community that is being studied by urban planners and policy wonks around the world, and particularly in the UK, as it picks a course for the upgrade of its broadband backbone, creaky as it is today.
Residents of this town of 7,500 zip along the net at speeds of up to 100 megabits per second. They get a triple-play package of TV, phone and broadband for €39 per month (£31). For another fiver, there is an e-learning offer for students and young children. And because the town is wired from end-to-end with fibre-optic cable, Nuenen has attracted the interest of big business. Philips has launched an e-health pilot program and Dutch banks have set up a variety of online banking initiatives on the next-gener...
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