BT has revealed plans to extend its fibre broadband network to more parts of the country – predominantly in Scotland, the Midlands, North East and North West of England - with upgrades to 99 exchanges.
The £2.5bn programme will make fibre broadband available to a further 1.2 million premises, bringing the total footprint to about 19 million premises.
Openreach, BT's local network business, is scheduled to carry out the work before or during spring 2014.
BT says that an additional 600,000 premises will also gain access to fibre broadband as a result of additional 'infill' work in previously announced areas.
Mike Galvin, Managing Director, NGA, Openreach, said: "The UK is making great progress with super-fast broadband and this latest phase of work will keep up the momentum. Speeds are increasing all the time with the UK second only to Japan within the G8.
"I am sure that communities across the UK will be pleased to see that they are factored into our commercial plans and I now look forward to working with councils to identify further areas that we can enable with their support."