BROMSGROVE residents are the latest in the county to benefit from a high speed internet initiative.

More than 20,000 homes and businesses across Worcestershire will be able to access faster fibre broadband by the end of the month, as a result of the broadband roll out.

The milestone has been welcomed by Bromsgrove MP Sajid Javid, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.

The MP visited Stoke Heath with representatives from Worcestershire County Council and BT, to switch on the project's 100th fibre cabinet.

It will provide around 130 local households and businesses with the option to sign up to faster fibre broadband.

Once an area has been upgraded, local people have access to the broadband with download speeds of up to 80 megabits per second, and uploads of up to 20Mbps.

Stoke Heath is the first area of Bromsgrove to benefit from the Superfast Worcestershire partnership, and it is crucial for residents in the area as it has previously not been covered by the private sector's commercial roll out.

Superfast Worcestershire is part of the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme, which last Monday announced it had made superfast fibre broadband available to two million homes and businesses around the country.

The cabinet, in Steel Close, is the first of around 14 due to be installed in Bromsgrove in the coming months.

When all the cabinets have gone live, around 1,400 additional homes and businesses in Bromsgrove will be able to access faster fibre broadband.

The MP said: "This is an excellent milestone and great news for people and businesses in Stoke Heath who will benefit from superfast broadband.

“I know from speaking to many local, small businesses and to constituents working from home, superfast broadband will make a real difference."

Mike Cook, BT's regional director for Worcestershire and the West Midlands, said: "There can be few areas of modern life which are not influenced in some way by broadband – whether it’s supporting how we work, how we learn, how we communicate with friends and family, or how we entertain ourselves.

"Now’s the time to embrace high-speed broadband and switch to the superfast lane.”