different kinds of grants during different stages of their projects, including:• an initial scoping and feasibility assessment grant ranging from GBP 2 000 to GBP 5 000 (USD 3 138 to USD 7 845);• a detailed project planning grant from GBP 7 500 to GBP 15 000 (USD 11 767 to USD 23 538); or • capital investment in the broadband project, up to a maximum of 89 per cent of capital infrastructure costs.Case study: Community broadband in Germany Communities in rural Germany have joined their efforts successfully to finance the construction of a high-speed broadband network. The investors have included a mix of local governments, businesses and individuals. These communities are located in the German provinces of Nordrhein-Westfalen and Schleswig-Holstein, where they previously did not have access to adequate broadband services because of lack of commercial attractiveness for service providers. The government only provided funding for broadband connections with speeds up to 2 Mbit/s.These communities used crowdfunding to pay for new broadband infrastructure, which then was rented to service providers, defraying the investment cost95. A minimum investment of EUR 10 000 (USD 11 392) could provide investors an annual interest return of between 3 and 5 per cent96. For the investment to go ahead, a minimum of 70 per cent of households in that community needed to sign up for a connection.This approach proved successful. The largest such community consortium took shape in the province of Schleswig-Holstein, drawing a total investment of EUR 70 million. It started in 2010 and came to involve 50 communities97.Trends in Telecommunication Reform 2016 29 Chapter 1 Box 1.13: Key lessons: Community broadband • Community broadband networks can be successful in deploying fibre networks in areas that are commercially unviable for operators. However, they are relatively new and still in the early phases of deployment, so it is not clear how commercially sustainable they will be in the long term.• Community broadband networks will often require external financing to get started. Investments can be made by private crowdfunding , by government grants or a mix of the two. Governments offering grants should vet every stage of the grant award process to ensure the project is fully compliant with its investment criteria.• Regulators may wish to ensure that communities receiving government grants offer the infrastructure on an open-access basis. However, this may reduce the returns to the community broadband network and so the community should consider the impact of this in its early business-planning stages.• Communities should consider how the service portfolio might evolve over time as consumers increasingly demand over-the-top and streaming services, which require highly reliable networks. In addition, communities might find it difficult to negotiate the same competitive content deals that commercial operators are able to offer.• Innovative business approaches can make it feasible for communities to invest in broadband infrastructure. In this case study, the investors retain ownership of the infrastructure and are entitled to a return on investment. • This return could be used to offset possible borrowing needed for the project.