On behalf of the organising committee of the First International Workshop on Operator-assisted (Wireless Mesh) Community Networks (OpComm) 2006, we would like to welcome you to Berlin, Germany. Your host city of Berlin is the capital and the biggest city of Germany. It is one of the most influential centres in European politics, culture and science.

OpComm 2006 is the first in what is planned to be an annual series of workshops on operator-assisted community network technologies. This workshop provides a unique forum to (1) capture the current state of the art from the operator's, the researcher's, and the community network activist’s perspective pertaining to the state of the art of community/mesh networks, (2) to encourage the exchange of ideas, to discuss best practices and upcoming standards, and to raise awareness between these groups, which will hopefully lead to synergy and intensified co-operation rather than simple coexistence.

OpComm 2006 will highlight the growing convergence of the operator and community networks in achieving a ubiquitous, pervasive communications in next generation communications systems. The range of topics presented at OpComm is diverse within this field, covering Quality-of-Service (QoS) for continuous media, security, Medium Access Control (MAC) performance, network support protocols and field trial & test-bed experiences. There are 15 technical paper presentations, 2 invited talks and 2 keynotes. The presenters of the technical papers came from all corners of the world ranging from America, Asia, Middle East, Europe, and Australia. The acceptance rate for the technical paper was below 40% which is significant given that OpComm is held for the very first time.

We warmly welcome you to Berlin and OpComm 2006!

The Organizing Committee