Bude, Falmouth, Launceston, Liskeard and Truro included in the latest roll-out, with more than 2,000 Cornish homes and businesses already using the technology.
Superfast broadband has started to become available to nine more Cornish communities, including some of the county’s largest centres.
The first homes and businesses in and around Truro, Liskeard, Launceston, Bude, Falmouth, Marazion, North Hill, Marhamchurch and Dobwalls now have access to the high-speed technology three months ahead of schedule.
They are the first Cornish communities to get superfast broadband in the next phase of the Superfast Cornwall roll-out programme. The technology is planned to ‘go live’ in further locations - including Callington and Drakewalls - later this month.
By the end of March superfast broadband will be available to about 90,000 Cornish premises.
The Superfast Cornwall partnership between the European Union, BT, Cornwall Council and Cornwall Development Company has dubbed the roll-out in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly the “Big Build”. The Big Build includes the laying of 130,000 kilometres of optical fibre and the upgrading of 100 telephone exchanges.
Nigel Ashcroft, programme director of Superfast Cornwall for Cornwall Development Company, said: “This is another very important step forward in the development of an initiative vital to the future prosperity of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Superfast Cornwall’s rapid roll-out programme is matched by great local enthusiasm and support for this high-speed technology.
“More than 2,000 Cornish householders and firms are already using superfast broadband – and the feedback from customers is very positive. They are finding it brings big benefits to the way they live and work.”
Ranulf Scarbrough, BT’s Superfast Cornwall programme director, said: “The arrival of superfast broadband in these communities several months ahead of schedule shows that Superfast Cornwall is going from strength to strength. The engineering teams from BT’s local network business Openreach are working hard to make excellent progress with the complex and challenging roll-out of superfast broadband.
“Of course, a huge amount remains to be done. We are still at a relatively early stage of the roll-out in most of these communities. Over the coming months we will be making the technology much more widely available both in these locations and many others. There will be considerable challenges in the months and years ahead, but already this pioneering partnership is a great success story.”
The new network is available on an open wholesale basis to all companies offering broadband services.
BT recently announced it is to roughly double the speed of its super-fast broadband fibre-to-the-cabinet service next year and also increase the headline speed of its fastest fibre broadband product to up to 300Mbps
In Cornwall, more than 15,000 homes and businesses already have access to superfast broadband following the success of a pilot scheme earlier this year*. And by the end of 2014 at least 80 per cent of premises in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly will have access to optical fibre broadband with alternative technologies, such as wireless and satellite, being used to boost speeds in locations where fibre is not currently viable.