Alderbury has topped OpenReach’s list of the 20 locations in the South West with the highest Full Fibre broadband coverage.

With more than nine out of ten homes and businesses able to order the one gigabit per second service, the ancient village has become one of the most connected communities in the region.

Salisbury came just a fraction behind, ranking second, followed up by the coastal village of Downderry in Cornwall and the popular seaside destinations of Lynton and Lynmouth in North Devon rank third and fourth. Bristol South rounds out the top five.

So far, more than £300m has been invested to upgrade the region’s communications infrastructure, replacing legacy copper connections with the much faster Full Fibre broadband.

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Further investment is planned over the coming years, with more than 300 exchange areas already part of the company’s UK-wide commercial investment programme, which aims to reach 25 million premises by the end of 2026.

However, only around two in five homes and businesses which could upgrade to the new platform across the region have done so.

Martin Williams, Openreach’s partnership director for the South West, said: “Our amazing engineers and build partners have done a wonderful job to help us reach this significant milestone.

“This Full Fibre upgrade is a huge boost for the South West. We’re adopting a balanced build, bringing ultrafast speeds to the region’s biggest cities and most rural and coastal communities.

“We’re not stopping at one million – and people in the South West should visit the Openreach website to see if they can upgrade to Full Fibre already, or see when we’re coming to their area.”

People can visit here to register for updates and check their postcode to see if services are available from their chosen provider. They can then contact their provider to upgrade to Full Fibre.