The European Commission’s recently announced Recovery Plan includes a €5 billion injection of unspent EU funds “to improve energy interconnections and broadband infrastructure”.
A little more detail is available in the FAQ where it is stated that “The strategy will be supported by public funds in order to provide broadband access to under-served and high cost [...]

In a recent interview BT’s CEO Ian Livingston suggests that the recession and shareholder pressure may jeopardise plans to spend £1.5bn bringing the next generation of super-fast broadband services to 10m British households within the next four years.
The credit crunch and BT’s recent results will have constrained the availability of capital, and there remains regulatory [...]