Ultra-fast fibre broadband to be extended to 1.7m properties

Ultra-fast fibre optic broadband looks set to be rolled out to more than 1.5 million properties thanks to the government's Urban Broadband Fund.

According to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the £100 million fund will support the deployment of broadband with speeds of at least 80Mbps to around 1.7 million premises and 200,000 businesses in ten cities by 2015.

In addition, a new wireless broadband network will be extended to almost three million residents in the urban areas - Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Bradford, Newcastle, Manchester, Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh and London.

Chancellor George Osborne, who announced the news in his Budget speech, said: "These bids have the potential to create in the UK ten of the best cities in the world for broadband connectivity."

The move is part of the government's strategy to roll out fibre optic broadband to 90 per cent of homes and businesses across the country by 2015 as it attempts to deliver the best super-fast broadband network in Europe.