This presentation by Prof Alfredo Terzoli is entitled “A model for sustainable broadband penetration in poor rural and peri-urban communities”. Its synopsis and purpose are as follows: Rhodes and Fort Hare Universities have been active in ICT for Development for many years, through the two Telkom Centres of Excellence in Telecommunication hosted in their Computer Science departments (www.coe.ru.ac.za; www.coe.ufh.ac.za). From this experience has risen a model that would allow poor communities to be part of the information society, from which they have been up to now essentially excluded. The presentation focuses on this model, detailing what parts have been implemented and tested and what still needs on-the-ground testing. Our conviction, however, is that the entire model will work well and will make possible for broadband to be rolled out in South Africa to finally arrive on a large scale and at very low, or zero cost in poor rural and peri-urban areas. Besides illustrating how the big puzzle of real broadband distribution to the entire population is made possible, we would like to see how an appropriate state entity can help us transform this model into a large scale roll out.