Wiltshire leads the way with top speed broadband
South-west Wiltshire has been announced as one of the first areas in the UK that will offer 100mbps fibre broadband.
The service, which will enable businesses and residents to access broadband speeds up to 16-times faster than the UK's national average, has been rolled across Trowbridge, Melksham, Warminster, Westbury and Frome.
The service, which is being provided by Virgin Media, has been welcomed by Andrew Murrison, MP for South West Wiltshire.
"I welcome this development which will be good for individual users and businesses locally," said Murrison.
The 100Mb speed will enable customers to download albums in five seconds, a TV programme in about 30 seconds, a high quality film in one-and-a-half minutes and a high definition movie in about seven minutes.
Virgin Media has stated that it is on-track to roll-out the offering to over 13 million homes by mid-2012.
“We know residents in Trowbridge will be blown away by what 100Mb can deliver and the real impact this can have on day-to-day life, be it uploading family holiday videos to share with friends or downloading an entire music album in a matter of seconds," said Jon James, executive director of broadband at Virgin Media.
A recent Wiltshire economic development meeting highlighted slow broadband as a serious difficulty to businesses in rural areas of the County. Earlier this year, BT announced that it would be launching a 40mbps service to 41 market towns in the region.