BRUSSELS has agreed that the government can be granted state aid approval to roll out faster internet connections across the countryside.

The decision sets the principles against which all individual local authorities can now work to be granted state aid approval individually by Broadband Delivery UK.

The government has allocated £530 million during the current Spending Review period to stimulate commercial investment to roll out high speed broadband in rural communities

It has also pledged to invest up to £150 million to improve mobile coverage in the UK for consumers and businesses that live and work in areas where coverage is poor or non-existent.

Cumbria was named by the government as one of the first counties expected to be formally granted the green light for state aid next alongside Rutland, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire.

Cumbria County Council hopes its Connecting Cumbria project will deliver superfast broadband to 93% of the mainly rural county.

The county will need to have state aid approval for the initiative as a major project in order for £40m of Government and European funding previously agreed for the project to be released.

All of the people working on Connecting Cumbria will now be continuing to work hard to clear the final hurdles and also sign the delivery contract with the preferred bidder BT, it said.

This will hopefully mean that BT can begin its rollout activity in Spring 2013, with engineers surveying the county for the best ways to deliver the infrastructure for superfast broadband.

Councillor Elizabeth Mallinson, the local authority's cabinet member responsible for Connecting Cumbria, said: "I am delighted that this key milestone has been reached.

"It hopefully opens the doors for the local rollout of the project and to get on with delivering superfast broadband to communities next year.

"There has been a tremendous amount of preparation work going on in anticipation of this announcement and we will now be working closely with BDUK to ensure Cumbria meets all the final criteria.

"This will allow us to start the intensive work with communities, partners and BT, which will see us agreeing how to roll out this major project."

The county council's cabinet is expected to decide on the strategic roll-out programme, which will outline the priorities on where superfast broadband will be delivered, in January.

This strategic plan will then inform how, where and when BT actually delivers on the ground.

It is anticipated that work on the ground will begin in Spring 2013, as long as all the final legal hurdles are cleared