EU gives Wales green light to go digital

2 Jun 2005

Wales can invest in rolling out high-speed Internet access to remote areas, the European Commission said yesterday, approving the state aid.

The EU executive Commission will also partly fund the broadband infrastructure roll-out. The Commission did not provide any figures for the amount of aid.

"The measure by the Welsh Assembly government ... will bring first generation broadband to currently underserved regions of Wales allowing citizens to exploit the benefits of broadband technologies," it said in a statement.

These so called "black spot" areas are localities where broadband services are not available and that are not considered by market players as commercially feasible.

The areas include the 35 telecommunications exchange areas not figuring on BT Group's roll-out program, as well as communities that are disadvantaged for technological or topological reasons, i.e. they are located too far from an asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL)-enabled telecommunications exchange.

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