The European Union has given the thumbs up to the UK governments Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) scheme.

For those who came in late this is a cunning plan to bring superfast broadband to rural areas. EU competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia is happy for the government to provide £530 million in state funding to be used in the scheme.
The decision still needs to be approved by other commissioners but this is fairly likely.

The commission is looked into the project because only two companies, BT and Fujitsu, had signed up to a framework agreement with the government last July. BT has so far won all the BDUK-based contracts and in some cases, has been the only bidder.

The EU was worried about reports that BT was overcharging the British taxpayer by inflating the costs associated with deploying superfast broadband to rural areas under the BDUK scheme by up to 80 percent.  BT denied it all.