Brussels, 19/12/2012 (Agence Europe) - Following a public consultation, the European Commission adopted on 19 December revised guidelines for the application of EU state aid rules to the broadband sector. The new rules will help foster a key EU objective, namely getting very fast broadband access across the entire EU, by allowing state aid where the market fails to deliver and by ensuring free access to infrastructure that has received state aid. The new guidelines focus on 1) technological neutrality, taking into account technological advances, acknowledging that super-fast (Next Generation Access) networks can be based on different technological platforms; 2) ultra-fast broadband networks: to help achieve the Digital Agenda objective of delivering very fast connections (of more than 100 Mbps) to half of European households by 2020, the revised guidelines will allow public funding in urban areas too; 3) the guidelines require that any public investment must fulfil a so-called “step change”: publicly financed infrastructure can only be allowed if it provides a substantial improvement over existing networks and not only a marginal improvement in citizens' connectivity; 4) greater transparency through new provisions regarding the publication of documents, a centralised data base for existing infrastructure and ex post reporting obligations to the Commission. The guidelines will be formally adopted in January 2013.For full details, see: http://ec.europa.eu/competition/state_aid/legislation/ broadband_guidelines_en.pdf. (FG/transl.fl)