First 50 customers connected to Cornish superfast broadband

Telecoms giant BT aims to make service available to 14,000 customers by end of the week

BT has connected its first 50 Cornish customers to superfast broadband, six months after a major £132m rollout plan was unveiled to bring the area into the digital economy.

The service is currently available to more than 1,000 businesses and homes in the Chiverton Cross and Chacewater areas.

By the end of the week, the service will be made available to an additional 14,000 customers living in St Agnes, St Day, Portreath, Devoran, Leedstown, Stenalees and Par.

BT hopes that by 2014 superfast broadband will be available to at least 80 per cent of businesses and homes in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

Some £53.5m of funding is coming from the European Regional Development Fund Convergence programme, and BT is investing £78.5m.

BT expects the broadband infrastructure to create 4,000 new jobs and protect a further 2,000.

"The significant investment hopes to place Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly at the forefront of global digital communication and business," said Carleen Kelemen, director of the Convergence Partnership Office for Cornwall.

"High-speed broadband is essential to meet our economic ambitions."