Northumberland County Council (NCC) has praised BT's decision to include the communities of Alnwick and Amble in its national fibre optic broadband rollout.

During 2013, a total of 6,800 homes and businesses in the two small towns will be upgraded to receive access to the service, which offers downstream speeds of up to 80Mbps.

In comparison, the UK's average download rate stands at just 9Mbps, according to the latest Ofcom figures.

The Northumberland rollout will take the number of local properties covered by BT's super-fast broadband network to more than 80,000.

Commenting on the news, deputy leader of NCC Roger Styring said: "This and previous telephone exchange upgrades will make a considerable contribution to the regeneration of our county's economy and will hopefully help equalise the competitive disadvantage that we presently experience."

The announcement comes just two months after BT revealed it had deployed next-generation copper broadband to a further 4,300 premises across Northumberland.

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