THE county’s superfast broadband programme has reached a major milestone with the 300th cabinet in Hampshire now enabled with speedier internet access.

This means that an additional 72,000 Hampshire homes and businesses, which would not have been covered by the commercial market, now have access to new fibre-optic technology providing faster broadband, with most of these premises able to access superfast broadband speeds greater than 24 Mbps.

Hampshire County Council leader Roy Perry said: “We continue to make strong and significant progress with our ambition to ensure people living and working in Hampshire can take full advantage of all the internet has to offer, but I will not be satisfied until we have 100 per cent of premises with access to faster internet speeds.

“However, what is really encouraging is that Hampshire has one of the highest take-up rates of superfast broadband in the country. Not only does this demonstrate how important superfast broadband speeds are to Hampshire residents and businesses, but it also means that more can be reinvested in our programme to go even further, by using the claw back mechanism we have contractually agreed with BT.”

Stacey King, BT’s South East regional partnership director, added: “This is great news and a significant milestone for the Hampshire joint partnership. More high-speed broadband connections in the county will help businesses grow, attracting inward investment and providing a boost to the local economy. Whatever you do online, you can do it better with fibre broadband.”

In Hampshire, the government, the county council and local partners are providing more than £29m of investment to ensure that more than 97,000 additional homes and businesses across the county can gain access to superfast broadband, once the programme is complete.