How Amsterdam was wired for open access fiber

The city of Amsterdam has been involved for several years in building Citynet, a partnership between the city and two private investors to wire 40,000 Amsterdam buildings with fiber. And it’s not just fiber, it’s open accessfiber—any ISP can sign up to use the infrastructure and deliver ultra-fast Internet access.

In 2008, the European Union ruled that the city’s involvement in the project was in fact legal, and that it was not improperly interfering in the market.

Ars Technica asked Herman Wagter, CEO of the company that built the Citynet fiber project, to talk about how he got the job done, and to explain the challenges of rolling out fiber in a densely crowded European city.

Read his comments here: How Amsterdam was wired for open access fiber.