WORK has been launched to connect 16 Somerset communities to a new ‘ultrafast’ fibre broadband network which will deliver some of the fastest speeds in the UK.

Bradford-on-Tone is among the 21 areas in Somerset and Devon to be connected in the latest phase of the Connecting Devon and Somerset broadband rollout, being delivered by its new partner, Gigaclear.

It is a milestone for the local government-led broadband programme which has already provided 282,000 homes and businesses with superfast broadband access, and overall 327,000 with improved broadband access.

Gigaclear, which supplies full fibre broadband to rural locations, has started pre-construction survey work, building a new full fibre network which will connect direct to homes and businesses with the capability to deliver speeds of up to 1000Mbps.

Work to lay new cables is set to start in November, initially providing almost 9,000 homes and businesses with access to the ultrafast network by February 2018.