HIGH-SPEED fibre optic broadband is now available to 10,000 businesses and homes in Worcestershire, after the roll-out of a modernisation programme.

Superfast Worcestershire, a £20 million partnership between Worcestershire County Council and BT, is bringing download speeds of 80 megabits per second to the region.

The project has involved laying fibre optic cables and installing fibre broadband cabinets.

Councillor Simon Geraghty, Worcestershire County Council’s cabinet member for skills, economy and infrastructure, said: “It’s a fantastic achievement to have extended the provision of fibre broadband to within reach of just over 10,000 premises in the county.

“In addition, our roll-out programme is currently three months ahead of schedule.

“This is great news as it means more residents and businesses can access fibre broadband even sooner than expected.”

Bill Murphy, managing director of BT’s next generation broadband programme, added: “Superfast Worcestershire is a huge engineering project but the roll-out is progressing extremely well.”

Superfast Worcestershire is part of the government’s broadband delivery UK programme which yesterday announced 1.5 million premises across the country are now able to access superfast broadband as a result of public-private sector partnerships.