'Super-fast' broadband for Frome and Shepton Mallet

Two towns in Somerset are to receive "super-fast" broadband by the end of next year at the latest, BT has said.

More than 14,000 homes and businesses in Frome and Shepton Mallet have been included as part of the UK roll-out.

BT's south west regional director Jon Reynolds said: "We want to make super-fast broadband available as widely as possible."

Taunton has already been announced and, along with Shepton Mallet, is expected to go live by the end of the year.

Super-fast broadband will involve installing fibre optic cables to enable broadband speeds to become 10 times faster, with speeds of at least 30MB, and up to 100MB per second, BT said.

In March, Somerset County Council said it planned to lobby the government for £7m to ensure this broadband technology would be rolled out across the country to help businesses thrive.

The £2.5bn roll-out programme aims to make super-fast broadband available to two-thirds of the UK by 2015.