Plusnet fibre broadband now available to 15m properties

Plusnet has hailed the comprehensive coverage of its fibre broadband network, which now reaches more than half of the UK's homes and businesses.

This means that over 15 million homes and businesses will be able to benefit from speeds which can be much faster than existing broadband technologies.

The milestone has been delivered 18 months ahead of schedule, with BT's Openreach engineers still adding between 100,000 and 200,000 new properties to the infrastructure every week.

Liv Garfield, chief executive of Openreach, said: "[Engineers] worked through many months of appalling weather to bring the benefits of fibre to cities, towns and villages and this is making a genuine difference to how people live their lives.”

By the end of spring 2014, the next-generation technology is set to be available to more than 19 million properties in the UK and the rapid expansion is aiming to ensure that the country will have the best broadband network among European nations by the end of 2015.