The European Commission (EC) has proposed new rules aimed at reducing the cost of rolling out high-speed Internet across the European Union, by about 30%.
The commission said that the rules may save companies €40bn to €60bn and would become directly applicable across the EU after agreement by the European Parliament and Council.
EC vice president Neelie Kroes said: "In most places, today’s rules hurt Europe’s competitiveness. Everyone deserves fast broadband."
"The European Commission wants to make it quicker and cheaper to get that broadband," Kroes added.
The commission said there are four main parts to the proposal, which build on existing best practices in place today in a number of EU countries including the UK.
According to the EC, the first problem is to ensure that new and renovated buildings came fully equipped with superfast broadband while second is the opening access to infrastructure on fair and reasonable terms and conditions, including price, to existing ducts and other supporting constructions.
Third problem according to the EC is better coordination between network operators and civil works while fourth is focused on simplifying complex and time-consuming permit granting, especially for masts and antennas.
