Faster broadband is coming to rural parts of the county, thanks to the Connecting Cumbria programme.

The Connecting Cumbria broadband rollout, a partnership led by Cumbria County Council and Openreach, is being extended to fill in broadband gaps and support their ambitions to improve digital connectivity across all areas of the county.

The additional phase of the rollout will use the latest Fibre to the Premise technology, which Connecting Cumbria said was quick, future-proof and more reliable.

Work will take place over the next year, with the additional rollout being funded with efficiencies made during earlier phases of work.

Jonathan Harris, senior programme manager for Connecting Cumbria, said: “The importance of having faster, more reliable internet access – wherever you are – cannot be underestimated. It’s vital for our businesses to be able to compete and for our communities to thrive.

“In a geography like Cumbria rolling out faster broadband is no mean feat but by using the latest FTTP technology we can reach more premises and begin to fill in gaps in coverage. There is more to do but the roll-out continues and we are determined to make faster broadband available to as many homes and businesses as possible.”

Superfast broadband has now been made available to more than 125,000 businesses and homes and businesses that would not be able to get it without the Connecting Cumbria programme which is supported by Building Digital UK (BDUK).

Robert Thorburn, Openreach partnership director, said: “This latest phase of work will help us make fast and reliable broadband available to more, very rural parts of the county, which will make a huge difference to the lives of people living and working there."