On 12 June 2012, the Commission announced its approval of the UK’s granting €6m of public financing to support the construction of an ultra-fast broadband network in Birmingham. The Commission found that the UK’s arrangements satisfy the Guidelines on the application of the State aid rules to rapid deployment of broadband networks in many ways, such as: the fact that the subsidised network will be genuinely open to all operators for at least 25 years and promote competition; the network will operated on a wholesale basis ensuring more competition at the retail level; and all possible wholesale access products will be offered to third party operators, including dark fibre, one of the most pro-competitive wholesale access products. Furthermore, this project is also fully in line with conditions of the new draft Broadband Guidelines, for example, by offering significant enhanced technology characteristics when compared to existing networks. Read more.