TWO small rural communities are benefiting from high speed broadband – three months ahead of schedule.

Homes and businesses in Sticklepath (Devon) and Bradford on Tone (Somerset) are the first to benefit from the £94m Connecting Devon and Somerset partnership.

The roll-out continues in these areas and when completed up to 700 premises in Sticklepath and up to 500 in Bradford on Tone will be able to access the technology.

Five other communities – Moretonhampstead, Holsworthy, Bishops Lydeard, Creech St Michael and Monkton Heathfield – are on track for the technology before the end of the year.

By early 2014 this first phase of the programme will have made high-speed internet technology available to at least 15,000 homes and businesses.

Andrew Leadbetter, Devon County Council's cabinet member for economy and growth, said the development marked the start of a "real transformation" for business across the two counties.

"Our rural businesses can start to overcome some of the barriers to growth they have faced now that they can take advantage of the increased opportunities that high speed broadband will bring.

"As an area we can now become more competitive, attracting inward investment, creating new jobs and supporting economic growth."

The Connecting Devon and Somerset partnership signed the delivery contract with private sector partner BT in January this year.

Since then, engineers have been busy conducting vital surveying work to ensure that the deployment plan for roll out is as cost effective and efficient as possible.

The Connecting Devon and Somerset programme will lead to the delivery of high-speed fibre broadband to around 90% of premises by the end of 2016.

It also plans to ensure a minimum of 2Mbps for all premises within the programme and is seeking more funding to extend the availability of superfast broadband across the whole area.

Somerset County Council deputy leader David Hall said the most exciting phase of the programme was now underway – and the process of transforming local businesses had begun.

"Not only is access to high speed fibre broadband a game changer for business, enabling them to compete on an equal footing, but it can help break down the digital divide in our communities."

Most of the programme will be Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) technology, where the fibre runs from the telephone exchange to a fibre optic street cabinet.

It can deliver download speeds of up to 80Mbps and upload speeds of up to 20Mbps.

Currently, the average download speed in Devon is 9.2Mbps and in Somerset 8Mbps - although many rural areas are on much slower connections.