Brussels, 24/02/2006 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has approved an initiative from the Welsh Development Agency to provide companies located in 14 Welsh business parks with access to fast broadband services at affordable prices. The “FibreSpeed Wales” project will compensate for lack of commercial investment by broadband providers in North Wales, where businesses can pay prices for high-speed services several times higher the in other areas of the UK. Wales lags behind the rest of the UK in broadband deployment due to its geographical isolation and can benefit from development subsidies for certain activities in line with Article 87§3-c. The Welsh authorities will support the construction of a network linking the business parks, the management of which will be tendered out to a wholesale operator. This operator will then offer its services to telecommunications operators who will provide high-speed broadband services to business users.