Eight Cornwall communities in line for faster broadband

Image caption, The project will offer fibre optic cables to the home

Eight Cornish communities have been named as the first in the county to get super-fast fibre-optic broadband.

Leedstown, the Chiverton Cross area, St Agnes, Portreath, St Day, Devoran, Stenalees and Par will be the first communities to benefit, BT said.

More than 10,000 businesses and homes in those areas will have speeds of up to 100Mbps by the end of March.

The 拢132m project, led by BT, will give Cornwall some of the fastest broadband speeds in the world.

The project, which has 拢53m of European funding, will deliver super-fast fibre optic broadband to 80% to 90% of businesses and households in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly by 2014.

Download speeds, currently about 2Mbps, will increase to up to 100Mbps, currently seen in only a few countries in the world.

The European Union wants member states to provide citizens with a minimum of 30Mbps broadband by 2020, with all nations offering basic broadband - generally regarded as 2Mbps - for all by 2013.

The UK risks falling foul of this second target because it has decided to delay the roll out of basic 2Mbps broadband to all homes until 2015.