Top European honours for South Kilkenny community broadband initiative

A group from Piltown that set up Ireland’s first community owned and managed fibre-broadband network have been honoured in Europe.

Broadband 4 Our Community (B4OC) were among 101 nominees for the EU Rural Inspiration Awards that took place in Brussels on Thursday.

The local group were nominated in the Digital Futures category.

Spokesperson Jim O’Brien told KCLR’s Sue Nunn they couldn’t believe it when they won:

“We had to give a 30 second speech about our project and we were told to have a thank you speech prepared in case we win. Of course I wasn’t prepared to win!  I was quite shocked and surprised that we won because the competition was quite high”