New subject: [CNSIG-Council] Sarantaporo.gr CN is winner of European Broadband Awards 2019!

4 Dec 2019

Dear friends,

we are thrilled to share some very good news with all of you.
Sarantaporo.gr community network has been awarded the first prize at the
European Broadband Awards 2019! (
https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/winners-european-broadba…)
This is an exciting moment for us, but also, we believe, an exciting moment
for CNs around Europe and around the world.

Our proposal received a score of 9,8 out of 10. What made a big difference
was our focus in digital literacy and skills building. This is a
characteristic of CNs that one does not find in telecom operators. And it
makes all the difference, in adding the word "meaningful" to connectivity.

It started with guifi.net being awarded at the first EBA in 2015 as the
best innovative model of financing, business and investment. Today
Sarantaporo.gr has received the first prize as the best example of demand
generation and take-up of connectivity. European Commission could not have
put it more clearly that it is counting on CNs to achieve its connectivity
goals. In the words of Franco Accordino, DG Connect Unit Director, at the
closing of B-Day:

"We need to build an EU that works for people. The Greek example creates a
strong message to support community connectivity in Europe [..] In EU we
don't have the "garages", but we have the local communities which can
innovate, through connectivity."

Dear friends,

We welcome this victory of ours as a victory of our local community, but
also as a victory of the Community-Networks-way of connecting people. At
the IGF in Berlin it was acknowledged that CNs are indeed an established
approach to connectivity when it comes to connecting remote areas or
providing affordable, meaningful connectivity for all. We thus believe that
this is a time of profound recognition of CNs as important stakeholders in
connecting the unconnected across Europe and the world and we should
leverage this momentum that is building up.

We hope you will all celebrate this victory with us as a common
achievement, which hopefully contributes in bringing at a new level the
discussion about the future of CNs in connecting the unconnected.

In solidarity,

for the Sarantaporo.gr Community Network,

*Vassilis Chryssos*
Board Member / Administrator

*Sarantaporo.gr Non Profit Organization*
28 Karaiskaki str., 10554 Psirri, Athens, Greece
Tel: +30 211 8002730, Mob: +30 694 794 8786
Email: vchryssos(a)sarantaporo.gr, Web: www.sarantaporo.gr