FUNDING of £46 million will help unlock ultrafast broadband speeds for rural villages around Colchester.

Thanks to funding from Aviva Investors, County Broadband, which is based in Aldham, is set to commence construction of its new ultrafast full fibre network to support under-served rural communities and businesses in the area.

As part of the rollout programme, the firm is set to double the size of its workforce, and expects to have 50 staff by the end of 2019.

Target areas are being identified and between ten and 15 villages in rural north Essex are set to benefit from speeds of up to 1,000 megabits per second - more than 20 times the UK average.

Lloyd Fenton, chief executive officer of County Broadband, said: "Many premises might have access to broadband, but the ultrafast speeds that we will all soon need are only available to around 6 per cent of the UK.

"Household usage and data consumption is already predicted to increase tenfold every six years and only ultrafast solutions will match this requirement.”

County Broadband is hosting a series of village meetings where they will explain to residents the benefits of their new Fibre-To-The-Premises network.

Mr Fenton said: “Our goal is to provide a world-class, future proof infrastructure which will deliver ultrafast broadband speeds of 1,000Mbps now and even faster speeds in future as well as providing additional services such as telephony, home security and access to the vital services that the local authorities and health services plan for online access in the coming years.

“Aviva Investors’ recognise the vital need for future proof fibre infrastructure and their funding supports our strategy to service more than 30,000 homes and businesses in the region.”