EU lawmakers are pushing to facilitate the rollout of high-speed broadband in the bloc with the revision of state aid rules.

Governments will be allowed to provide state support to fixed broadband networks providing at least 1 gigabit per second download speeds and 150 megabit per second upload speeds. The revised rules will allow EU countries to use either a published price, regulated price or cost-based price as a benchmark to set wholesale access prices.

The European Commission had previously set targets of having all European households covered by gigabit networks by 2030, with all populated areas covered by 5G by the same year.

Governments will have to launch a public consultation of at least 30 days before granting state aid, with the threshold for publishing details of granted aid lowered from €500,000 to €100,000.

Aid for rolling out mobile networks will only be allowed to improve the quality of existing or planned networks.

Margrethe Vestager, executive vice president in charge of competition policy at the European Commission, said: “The revised Broadband Guidelines adopted today are a major step towards a successful European digital transition. They will make it easier for Member States to support the deployment of performant broadband networks in insufficiently connected areas.

“This will benefit both consumers, businesses and the public sector. By reducing the digital divide, the new rules will further contribute to correcting social and regional inequalities across the EU.”

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