Fuente: © European Union
http://europa.eu.int

State aid: Commission approves €141 million aid scheme to increase broadband availability in rural Germany

/noticias.info/ The European Commission has approved under the EC Treaty state aid rules a €141 million scheme to help bring broadband to rural areas of Germany that currently do not have access. The scheme is aimed at closing the gap in access to affordable broadband services between rural and urban areas. The Commission found that the scheme provides the right incentives to achieve its objectives and that the competition between broadband service providers will be further strengthened.

Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes commented: “The digital divide between rural and urban areas in Germany is currently one of the highest among the EU Member States. I am pleased that this public investment will put German citizens and businesses in rural areas on an equal footing with those in urban areas as regards broadband access."

Connecting rural communities with broadband services is usually not commercially attractive for private operators because the low population density does not allow them to attract enough subscribers to justify their investment. That can result in huge differences in broadband availability within a Member State. According to a recent survey by IDATE (Broadband Coverage in Europe’ 2007 - data as at 31 December 2006), DSL coverage in urban areas of Germany reaches 99%, whereas in rural areas this figure at the end of 2006 was only 58.5% and cable networks could only reach a 5% market share of the German broadband market by January 2007. Therefore in rural areas additional incentives are required to increase broadband coverage.

The Commission found that the German scheme is designed to provide incentives for private operators to offer affordable broadband services in rural areas of Germany where such services are not currently available. It has a global budget of €141 million - a significant part of which can be received from the European Agricultural Fund for Regional Development.

The Commission's examination showed that the scheme contained safeguards, ensuring that public funding will only be used where no private operator would invest on existing market terms. Open tenders will guarantee that any aid will be kept to the minimum. Furthermore, open, non-discriminatory wholesale access will allow several broadband service providers to offer competitive services on the new networks.

The Commission concluded that the aid scheme is in line with the Commission’s policy to promote widespread and affordable broadband services to all European citizens and the positive effects of the envisaged investment would outweigh any potential distortions of competition it might bring about. The scheme is therefore in line with EU state aid rules, that allow aid which does facilitate the development of certain economic activities or areas where such aid does not unduly affect trading conditions between Member States (Article 87(3) (c) of the EC Treaty).

The non-confidential version of the decision will be made available under the case number N115/2008 in the State Aid Register on the DG Competition website once any confidentiality issues have been resolved. New publications of state aid decisions on the internet and in the Official Journal are listed in the State Aid Weekly e-News.

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