NEARLY 50,000 more properties in Suffolk will soon have access to high-speed broadband, BT has announced.

Homes and businesses in Hadleigh, Lowestoft, Beccles, and the Whitton area of Ipswich will benefit from a series of upgrades in the next few weeks.

The BT investment is expected to give a major boost to the local economy.

A recent report predicted that over the next 15 years the technology could give the economy of a typical town a �143million boost, create hundreds of new jobs and help many new start-up businesses.

Dave Hughes, BT regional director for East of England, said: “The advent of fibre broadband in these areas of Suffolk is a massive fillip for businesses and households.

“It will enrich people’s lives and bring a much-needed boost to businesses in these economically challenging times.

“They’re joining 11m UK premises which are now passed by one of the world’s fastest growing fibre networks.

“Fibre broadband will offer local firms and households new ways of working flexibly and allow large data and video files to be sent and received almost instantly.

“Other benefits include access to high quality video-conferencing and better back-up of computer systems.

“No-one is doing more than BT to bring faster broadband to Suffolk, but we want to take the technology even further.

“Local authorities and business organisations want fibre broadband to reach as many local homes and businesses as possible and we are offering to work with them to achieve their aspirations, while progressing our own plans to accelerate speeds in general.”

Exchanges in Suffolk already enabled for the high-speed broadband are Bury St Edmunds, Felixstowe, Foxhall, Haverhill, Ipswich, Kesgrave, Mildenhall, Newmarket, Stowmarket and Woodbridge.

BT’s local network business, Openreach, aims to make the high speed technology available to around two-thirds of UK homes and businesses by the end of 2014.

It will use a mix of fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) and fibre to the premises (FTTP) technologies. Both offer speeds much faster than those currently available to many UK homes and businesses.

FTTC, where fibre is delivered to the street cabinet, offers download speeds of up to 80Mbps and upload speeds of up to 20Mbps.

FTTP, where fibre runs all the way to homes and businesses, currently offers download speeds of 110Mbps.

These are expected to be increased to 330Mbps shortly.