Communities in the Camborne and Redruth area are the latest in Cornwall to receive superfast broadband as the Superfast Cornwall programme rolls on.

Homes in Four Lanes and Sandy Lane near Redruth, and Connor Downs near Camborne, are among 1,450 households and businesses in 25 Cornish villages and neighbourhoods to have had superfast broadband made available to them during the latest phase of the project.

That marks the start of the next phase of the fibre broadband roll-out in Cornwall, which will see £7.6 million invested to reach more than 8,000 further premises in some of the county’s most challenging locations by early 2018.

Cornwall Council and the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) is investing alongside the government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme and BT, following the £132 million first phase of the Superfast Cornwall programme, funded by the EU, BT and Cornwall Council.

That phase created 95 per cent fibre broadband coverage and gave nearly one in three Cornish households and businesses access to ultrafast speeds due to its widespread availability.

Julian German, Cornwall Council's cabinet member for economy and culture, said: “Cornwall Council remains committed to the challenging target of ensuring that every property has access to fast, reliable broadband, and these latest areas to be enabled represent another step forward into some of the most challenging rural parts of Cornwall.”

Mark Duddridge, chairman of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly LEP, said: “Superfast broadband is critical to developing our fast-growing digital economy which is why the LEP is investing £1.5 million from our Growth Deal and the Regional Growth Fund as part of this latest roll-out.”

Ranulf Scarbrough, Superfast Cornwall programme director for BT, said: “Superfast Cornwall has already made Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly the envy of rural areas across Europe. Now this latest phase includes some of the most challenging locations in the county. It shows our commitment to making faster broadband as widely available as possible.”

All of the engineering work for Superfast Cornwall is being carried out by Openreach, BT’s local network business. This means residents and businesses with access to fibre broadband can choose from a wide range of internet service providers and benefit from competitive pricing and products.