The paper outlines an introduction strategy to deploy an ATMbased network with broadband capabilities. First, a reference scenario is discussed. The proposed approach is based on the concept of overlay network able to provide customer-to-customer ATM connections and it foresees that the market to attract is mainly the medium/large business user area. Second, the impact of the described scenario on several telecommunication technologies is discussed. Emphasis is put on three main issues: deployment strategies of optical fibres in the distribution network, switching, and metropolitan area networks (MANs).