TELECOMS group BT had pledged to give another 41,000 Suffolk homes and businesses access to faster broadband by next summer.

Woodbridge, Leiston, Saxmundham, Hadleigh, Bungay and Kessingland are all included in BT’s latest list of communities to benefit from its roll-out of faster broadband speeds of up to 20 megabits per second (Mbps), delivered through conventional copper lines.

Barrow, Beyton, Blundeston, Claydon, Elmswell and Eriswell are also on the new list of exchanges which will offer speeds double those previously available.

The technology is already available to more than two-thirds of homes in the East of England (70%) and is expected to have passed the three quarters mark (81%) by the summer of next year.

This investment is in addition to the �2.5billion BT roll-out of super-fast fibre-based broadband, which is expected to bring even faster speeds to two-thirds of UK premises by the end of 2014.

Dave Hughes, BT’s East of England regional director, said: “BT’s roll-out of faster broadband across the East of England is running at a very rapid pace.

“We have already announced plans to make super-fast fibre-based broadband available to more than 1.5million homes and businesses in the region by the end of next year. Now we are able to confirm a further major investment in faster broadband speeds over copper lines.”

Mr Hughes added that BT wanted to work with the public sector to find ways of bring faster broadband to other areas which are “geographically and commercially more challenging”.

Suffolk County Council leader Mark Bee said: “Faster broadband is going to play an essential role in the future success of the region.

“In an increasingly competitive and technological world it is essential that local businesses and households have access to high-speed sophisticated communications.”