THE government's superfast broadband rollout has now reached more than 1m premises – but isolated areas are still proving harder to reach.

Culture secretary Sajid Javid said the programme was "firmly on track" to offer high-speed internet to 95% of UK homes and businesses by 2017.

"More than a million homes and businesses have now benefitted as a result of government's investment in superfast broadband," he said.

"It is totally transforming the way we live and work."

Businesses, superfast speeds were boosting profits through increased sales, reduced overheads and accessing markets abroad for the first time, said Mr Javid.

The rate at which the fibre technology is being rolled out under the programme is rapidly accelerating, with up to to 40,000 premises gaining access every week.

But the Federation of Small businesses (FSB) is calling for government to adopt much more ambitious targets for rolling out high speed broadband for businesses across the UK.

With an estimated 45,000 firms still on dial up, and many more struggling with speeds below 2Mbps, business was not always seeing the benefits of high speed broadband, said the FSB.

The UK's forthcoming digital infrastructure strategy needed to put small businesses at the front and centre of future rollout plans, so they could enjoy the benefits too, it warned.

The current government targets of 24Mbps for 95% of the population and 2Mbps for the remaining five per cent would not meet the future demands of UK businesses.

"Evidence from our members shows this clearly is a problem affecting all corners of the UK, rural areas and cities alike," said FSB chairman John Allan.

"While progress has been made with the residential market, businesses have not enjoyed the same benefits, which is holding back their growth."

Telecoms provider BT said the UK was leading its European counterparts in terms of the take up, competitiveness and pricing of superfast broadband.

Focus was now on the "final 5 per cent" – those areas in the most remote and hardest to reach places in the UK that are not covered by existing plans.

Some £10m had been invested in a series of pilot projects currently under way in eight locations across the nation to investigate the best way of tackling these areas.

The findings would be used to inform future funding bids to ensure everyone benefitted from the transformation of the digital landscape currently underway.

By 2024, the government's current investments in faster broadband would be boosting rural economies by £275 million every month, or around £9 million every day.

Superfast North Yorkshire was at the forefront of the delivery programme, said BT.

Allocated 3% of the national Broadband Delivery UK funding, it had delivered more than 10% of the 1m homes and businesses reached by the national programme to date.

"The programme shows the power of the public and private sectors working together, said Bill Murphy, BT's managing director of next generation access.

"BT has brought technical expertise to the table as well as millions of pounds of investment and, if we can go further, we will do so."